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Firm paid to house migrants in hotels loses Home Office contract over ‘performance and behaviour’ – UK politics live | Politics Key events Britons cutting back on spending as confidence in economy falls, survey showsConsumers are cutting back spending on everyday items amid falling confidence in the UK economy before Rachel Reeves’s spring statement, according to a survey. Richard Partington has the story. Labour accused of turning ‘blind eye to slavery’ over solar panels made in ChinaMinisters have been accused of turning a “blind eye to slavery” by ordering Labour MPs to remove legal protections to stop money being spent by state-owned Great British Energy on solar panels manufactured by forced labour in China, Jessica Elgot reports. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, has been giving interviews this morning. Asked if the Home Office would recover money from Stay Belvedere Hotels over the failed contract for housing asylum seekers in hotels (see 9.25am), he replied:
He went on:
We will be opening comments on the blog at about 10am. Firm paid to house migrants in hotels loses Home Office contract over ‘performance and behaviour’Good morning. There are many reasons why people object to tens of thousands of asylum seekers being housed for long periods in hotels and other temporary accommodation, but one is the perception that this is enabling a small number of firms to make huge profits at public expense for providing what is often a miserable service. This morning we learned that the Home Office is doing something about this. It has removed the contract for this work from Stay Belvedere Hotels (SBHL), blaming “concerns about its performance and behaviour as a government supplier”. In a news release issued just after midnight, it says:
And Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, said:
The Home Office confirmed the news after the Times published a report by Matt Dathan about SBHL losing the contract. Dathan says:
Dathan says one of the companies that will take over these hotel contracts is Corporate Travel Management, the firm that ran the Bibby Stockholm barge when it was used to house asylum seekers. The government is more keen to talk about something else – a Treasury announcement about a £2bn investment in social and affordable housing. As Jessica Elgot and Richard Partington report, the announcement comes a day before the spring statement, at a time when Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is anxious to persuade MPs that there is more to the government’s programme than just spending cuts. They report:
Here is the agenda for the day. 11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing. 11.30am: Wes Streeting, health secretary, takes questions in the Commons. After 12.30pm: MPs consider Lords amendments to three bills, including the GB Energy bill. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog. Source link Posted: 2025-03-25 10:55:35 |
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