Councillor demands cost to taxpayer of asylum seekers' refuge at Peterborough's Great Northern Hotel be revealed

A Peterborough councillor who gave medical help to asylum seekers placed in the city’s Great Northern Hotel has called for the cost to the taxpayer of the refuge to be revealed.

The demand comes from Labour Councillor and local GP Dr Shabina Qayyum who fears the amount will run into millions of the pounds but says an exact figure must be provided by Conservative politicians in Peterborough.

Her comments come as the Home Office’s end-of-February deadline to stop using the 171-year-old hotel as a refuge for asylum seekers looms and discussions get under way about the future 160-bedroom hotel, which stands amid the city’s Station Quarter regeneration site.

The issue triggered a row after Peterborough MP Paul Bristow issued a letter to the council leader Cllr Mohammad Farooq claiming that Labour, Lib Dems and Greens were opposed to the end of the hotel’s use as an asylum seekers’ refuge.

Cllr Qayyum said: “Despite Labour opposing the decision to use the Great Northern Hotel, I helped provide medical support once people were here.

"Not only did the government move people into the Great Northern without consulting the council they did not provide sufficient help for services when they did arrive.

“I worked with the Afghan Community Association to provide medical check-ups to over 120 people at the Verve Hotel and Great Northern.

"Those original migrants had moved on by October last year.

"The whole process shows how inappropriate the use of emergency hotel accommodation is.

"Meals were managed by a private company commissioned by the government with no say for local service providers.

“Local charities played a vital role stepping in where the government had failed to support individuals and to ensure basic safety and wellbeing standards were in place.

"The youngest was 14 years old and he had been separated from his family.”

About 80 asylum seekers were moved to the Great Northern Hotel and further 40 plus to the Verve Hotel in Boongate in November 2022 as the Home Office struggled to process a growing number of asylum seekers at its processing centre in Kent.

Cllr Qayyum said that details about how much taxpayer’s money had been spent on the Great Northern over the last year had to be released.

"The figure could run into millions of pounds.

She said: “It's clear that the Great Northern is a mess made by the Conservatives, nobody else.

"It was a Conservative decision to take over the hotel without telling the council, and a Conservative government that has been using taxpayers’ money.

“The Government are spending £8 million a day on hotels such as the Great Northern, which is over £3 billion a year.

Cllr Qayyum added: “Labour has always been opposed to the use of hotel accommodation to cover up for the record immigration backlogs built up by the government.

A spokesman for the Home Office said: “The Home Office continues to provide safe accommodation for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, as we work to end the use of hotels which are costing UK taxpayers £8.2 million a day.

“We’ll work closely with accommodation providers and local authorities to manage the exit process in a way which limits the impact on partners and service users alike.”