The Labour MP says the asylum hotel (Image: Chris Webb/X)
A 240-year-old seaside hotel has been used to house aslyum seekers for over three years – and one MP has had enough.
The began housing migrants at the Metropole Hotel on Blackpool seafront in September 2021, insisting that it was a temporary three-month solution to the .
Three years on, and the once-iconic landmark of the town’s hospitality trade is still packed full of asylum seekers, however, forcing Labour MP for South, Chris Webb, to step up his opposition campaign.
Mr Webb has alleged that occupants of the hotel are mistreated and not given sufficient access to food – and stressed the unsustainable strain of extra residents on Blackpool’s infrastructure.
“The Metropole Hotel is wholly unfit to be an asylum hotel and needs to be closed down,” he said in a statement on X in January.
“Blackpool has always been a place of warmth and hospitality, but the current situation is failing both asylum seekers and local residents.”
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Chris Webb has opposed the asylum hotel since he was elected last May (Image: UK Parliament)
“Vulnerable families are living in extremely concerning conditions while our already overstretched local services struggle to cope,” Mr Webb added. “This is completely unsustainable.”
The MP said he had “repeatedly raised the issue in Parliament” and was pressing both Home Office officials and Blackpool Council for “urgent action”.
He has called for an “immediate closure” of the facility and a return to “its original purpose, as a destination for holidaymakers and locals”.
The Metropole has been operated by the public services firm Serco since 2021 on behalf of the Home Office.
A spokesperson for the company has denied Mr Webb’s mistreatment claims, insisting that the “safety and wellbeing” of its residents were a “top priority”, including the provision of “regular, well-balanced meals”.
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The seaside hotel dates back over 200 years (Image: Google)
The leader of Labour-run Blackpool Council, Lynn Williams, has also criticised the use of the hotel to shelter asylum seekers, suggesting that its prominent spot near the town’s promenade is “not a suitable location for the much needed support of vulnerable people fleeing abuse and persecution”.
Meanwhile Paul Galley, leader of Blackpool’s Conservative group, suggested that a failure to shut down the Metropole could see other hotels in the seaside area follow suit.
“Hotels are not the place to house asylum seekers,” Mr Galley told the . “I fear Labour’s soft approach to immigration and its failure to even start to fulfil its pledge to stop the people-smuggling gangs will see more hotels in Blackpool being use to house [asylum seekers].”
The Express has contacted the Home Office for comment.