Peterborough's Great Northern Hotel to be 'stood down' as refuge for asylum seekers

The Government has announced that Peterborough’s Great Northern Hotel will no longer be used as a refuge for asylum seekers.

The historic hotel, in Station Approach, is one of 50 hotels nationwide that Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said would have contracts to house asylum seekers ended.

The action comes after nearly a year of campaigning by Peterborough MP Paul Bristow, who with Peterborough City Council leaders, said the hotel was not suitable for such a use given its proximity to key infrastructure and its place at the heart of key regeneration area, the Station Quarter, for the city.

About 80 asylum seekers were first moved to the 41-bedroom hotel in two coach loads during the night of November 11 last year as part of Home Office plans for the dispersal of asylum seekers from the Manston detention centre in Kent.

In a WhatsApp message sent by Mr Jenrick to Mr Bristow, the minister states: “I’m pleased to announce that thanks to the progress we’ve made stopping the boats we are exiting an asylum hotel in your constituency.”

Mr Bristow said the hotel referred to in the text is the Great Northern Hotel.

In a speech to the House of Commons, Mr Jenrick said the Home Office had written to local authorities stating that use of hotels would end with the removal of asylum seekers starting in ‘the coming days’ and to be completed by the end of January.

Mr Bristow has made repeated pleas in the House of Commons to Mr Jenrick, Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for an end to the use of the 171-year-old Great Northern Hotel to place asylum seekers.

He said: “It’s super news.

"The Great Northern Hotel will shortly be stood down as a hostel for young men who have crossed the Channel on small boats.

It will be back as a hotel at the gateway to our city

He added: “Hopefully this will be a new chapter in the history of this historic hotel. It is also good news for our station redevelopment.”