We’re no soft touch insists May, as migrants get free hotels

THERESA May yesterday insisted Britain’s streets were not ‘paved with gold’ – even as it emerged that migrants were being put up in hotels at taxpayers’ expense.

The Home Secretary joined her French counterpart to demand the EU do more to address a ‘global migration crisis’.

She insisted the ‘long-term answer’ to the problem was to tackle the perception among migrants that Britain offers the prospect of financial gain. ‘This is not the case – our streets are not paved with gold.’

But there was controversy after it was revealed that 100 illegal immigrants are staying in hotels in the North West. The stowaways are given their own hotel room, three cooked meals a day and a cash allowance of £35 a week.

And taxi drivers are being paid up to £150 a time to ferry migrants found in Kent to accommodation in London, The Daily Telegraph reported last night. Most of the journeys are believed to involve migrants who are under 18 to specialist accommodation.

In a joint article for The Sunday Telegraph and a French newspaper, Mrs May and French minister Bernard Cazeneuve called on EU nations to take action to address the root causes of the Calais chaos.

‘What we are currently facing is a global migration crisis,’ they said. ‘This situation cannot be seen as an issue just for our two countries. It is a priority at both a European and international level.’

Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke said: ‘It is outrageous that asylum seekers are being put up in hotel rooms at public expense. This sort of soft touch makes this country so attractive. The message should go out that they will be detained in disused military camps.’