An iconic Blackpool hotel has closed its doors to asylum seekers as part of Labour’s push to house small boat migrants at alternative accommodation sites, GB News can exclusively reveal.
The Metropole Hotel, an iconic Lancashire landmark that first opened in 1785, was repurposed to house hundreds of asylum seekers in 2021.
Local MP Chris Webb today confirmed the hotel will start welcoming tourists again, with a July deadline set for asylum seekers to leave.
Speaking to GB News, Mr Webb said that those currently housed at the Metropole Hotel will have a managed transition into more “appropriate asylum accommodation”.
It is understood that the migrants will be moved out of Blackpool while their asylum claims are being processed.
He said: “The Home Office are engaging now with Britannia and with Serco to rehouse these people elsewhere in the country… but I can say now that Blackpool will no longer have an asylum hotel.
“When it turned into an asylum hotel in 2021, the previous Government told us it would only be here for three months. But now we’re here in 2026, and we’ve finally closed it.
“This hotel has been part of scandal since it’s ever been an asylum hotel for various reasons; it’s been inadequate… I’m now going to be working night and day to hold the owners, Britannia, to account to restore this back to its former glory.
The Metropole Hotel, an iconic landmark in the Lancashire seaside town that first opened in 1785, was closed off to tourists in 2021 to house hundreds of asylum seekers
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GB NEWS
“Blackpool is the jewel of the tourism crown of the UK – we need to make sure this is fully operational, decent hotel for tourists come the end of this season.”
The closure was confirmed just hours after the Home Office shut eleven hotels, bringing the total number down to 185.
Around 400 hotels had been used to house asylum seekers at the peak of the crisis, with spending hitting £3billion in the 2023/24 financial year.
Asylum Minister Alex Norris said: “Hotels were meant to be a short‑term stop‑gap under the previous Government, but they spiralled out of control – costing taxpayers billions and dumping the consequences on local communities.
Labour MP Chris Webb spoke to GB News about the closure
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GB NEWS
“We are shutting them down by moving people into more basic accommodation, scaling up large sites, removing record numbers of people with no right to remain.
“This is about restoring control, ending waste, and handing hotels back to the community for good.”
The Home Office hopes the closure of the 11 hotels will save taxpayers nearly £65million a year.
However, figures published in December suggest more than 100,000 people remain in asylum accommodation.
The decision to house migrants at military barracks has also sparked protests, including in Crowborough
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Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is looking for alternative accommodation sites as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s promise to end the use of hotels by 2029.
Around 350 illegal migrants have already been moved to the Crowborough military barracks in East Sussex.
GB News has also extensively covered the Home Office’s £500million pilot scheme to put asylum seekers in newly renovated council houses.
The recent hotel closures have raised concerns about the Home Office “shunting people from hotels into residential apartments”.
Blackpool was once a thriving tourist hotspot
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GETTYShadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Those apartments are then not available for young people struggling to get on the housing ladder.
“The Conservative plan is to leave the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights] so that illegal immigrants are deported within a week of arrival – not put up in hotels or apartments. But Labour is too weak to do that.”
Meanwhile, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman added: “It is absolutely shocking that the government is boasting about moving illegal migrants from one form of taxpayer-funded accommodation to another.
“Thousands have already invaded Britain this year, and more will follow unless Reform UK is in government. We would detain and deport every illegal migrant.”