More migrants in hotels in Kensington than Scotland

MORE migrants are held in hotels in Kensington than the whole of Scotland, it has emerged amid Tory anger over the SNP not pulling its weight.

Scotland has provided hotel spaces for 500 migrants, compared with 600 being housed in Kensington and Chelsea, even though the London borough has a population about a 30th the size. It is understood that Wales has even fewer migrants in hotels than Scotland.

The disparity was revealed by Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, as he taunted the governing SNP that Scotland accounted for 1 per cent of the 51,000 migrants being housed in hotels even though the country accounted for eight per cent of the UK’S population.

“In fact, there are more migrants housed in contingency accommodation in Kensington than there are in the entirety of Scotland. The SNP’S message is clear: ‘Refugees welcome, but not in SNP Scotland’,” he told MPS as he closed the second reading of the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill.

The Telegraph revealed last week that the Home Office has had to find an extra £2billion for asylum hotels, with no deadline to end their use.

The number of migrants being housed in hotels has passed 50,000 for the first time at a cost of more than £6million a day, up from just 2,600 in March 2020.

Jonathan Gullis, a former minister and Tory MP for Stoke-on-trent North, which is housing 1,600 migrants, said: “We have twice as many as Scotland. Rather than virtue signalling, how about doing the decent thing and offering up more of their accommodation so that Stoke-on-trent can stop carrying the burden for the rest of the country.”