‘Fake news’ accusations over Farage town hotel claims
FORMER UKIP leader Nigel Farage has been accused of peddling ‘fake news’ after falsely claiming an Ellesmere Port hotel was housing what he calls ‘illegal immigrants’.
Mr Farage is going around the country campaigning against migrants arriving on boats from France then being housed in hotels while they await news on their asylum applications.
He visited four hotels in the North West claiming this region had been ‘most heavily burdened’ with accommodating migrants in a YouTube video he called ‘Nigel Farage investigates part two’.
But he got it completely wrong when he was chauffeur-driven to the Mercure Woodhey House
Hotel in Ellesmere Port where witnesses say he did not even get out of the car. Despite his claims, Cheshire West And Chester Council confirmed the hotel is being used ‘to accommodate homeless households’.
Mr Farage said in the video as he pulled up outside the Mercure: “You don’t have to travel very far around the North West to get hotel after hotel that is closed. And one of the reasons I’m doing this
– I want people to get a handle on the sheer scale of what is going on here.
“So here we are – classic with all the others we’ve seen – car park completely, all the bedroom windows open, which means people are there. They’re in.”
A reporter has visited the site and the occupants themselves confirmed everyone was homeless including one young woman from Northwich who said she lost her home in a house fire.
Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Justin Madders referenced the Farage visit on Twitter after concerns were raised about some behavioural issues.
He said: “We had a meeting with the council and residents about the Mercure last night and whilst there are issues, there was no suggestion from anyone that ‘illegal immigrants’ were staying there. Fake news from what I can see.”
A council spokesman said: “Cheshire West And Chester Council is only using the Woodhey House Hotel in Ellesmere Port to accommodate homeless households.”
Also featured on the video was Mr Farage visiting other hotels in Sandbach, Hoylake and Daresbury.
We can confirm asylum seekers are being housed at the Daresbury Park Hotel after contacting the Home Office following a protest by the For
Britain party on Thursday (August 20).
Our sister paper the Liverpool Echo reported on Mr Farage’s trip to a Hoylake hotel with claims the refugees staying there were taken on a tour of Anfield which Mr Farage described as ‘absolutely astonishing’.
But Labour Mayor Joe Anderson slammed the tone of the video with a powerful rebuke.
He said: “If he wants to talk football I’ll say he’s a substitute – for a human being. He’s been relegated, he’s just totally irrelevant now isn’t he.
“We have actually just told the Government that we want to do more as a city for refugees and welcome more people in.”