Peterborough MP vows that turning Great Northern Hotel into asylum seekers' refuge 'will not happen again'

Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes has vowed that the city’s historic Great Northern Hotel will not be used again as a refuge for asylum seekers.

His pledge comes after it was announced that the Government had begun using some hotels across the country to house asylum seekers because of a shortage of other suitable accommodation due to the vast number of people seeking refuge in the UK combined with a backlog of thousands of cases.

But Labour MP Mr Pakes said: “I was opposed to the Great Northern Hotel being used in this way in the first place.

"And it will not happen again.

"It was the wrong decision for Peterborough and the community.”

And a spokesperson for Peterborough City Council said: “There aren't any plans to reuse the Great Northern Hotel for asylum seekers that we are aware of.”

About 80 asylum seekers were moved into the 41-bedroom hotel in Station Approach on November 11, 2022 as part of Home Office plans for the dispersal of asylum seekers from the Manston detention centre in Kent.

The move triggered protests from the council and then the Peterborough MP Paul Bristow claiming that the use of the 171-year-old hotel for asylum seekers was inappropriate because of its proximity to vital transport infrastructure.

The hotel was finally ‘stood down’ by the Home Office as a refuge for asylum seekers in October last year