PM says he will work to ensure ‘poorest communities’ do not have lion’s share of migrant accommodation Daily Telegraph 11/08/26 Andy Burnham has said middle-class families should “play their part” by accepting asylum seeker accommodation near their homes. The Prime Minister said he would work to ensure that the “poorest communities” did not have to take the lion’s share of accommodation for asylum seekers. Mr Burnham has campaigned against housing asylum seekers in houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and hotels in working-class areas, including his Makerfield constituency. He refused to commit to stopping small boat Channel crossings by the next election. Mr Burnham told GB News: “I do have to say that we cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers. Advertisement “I do believe all parts of the country need to work... to play their part. It’s a challenging issue. We’re working a...
Will Burnham break with the past and actually listen to voters? Daily Telegraph 10/08/26 It has been a long time since polls expressing increased hostility by British voters towards immigration were a surprise to anyone. Over the weekend a new survey found that the proportion of voters who now believe that immigration has been “mostly bad” for Britain has leaped 10 points in the last decade, from 33 to 43 per cent. The change among those who voted Remain in 2016 has been the most dramatic: among this group, the number who said migration had been bad had risen from 12 to 22 per cent. None of this is surprising, and is in line with other surveys that have found immigration and asylum creeping towards the top of voters’ political priorities.. Today a record 230 people arrived by a single “mega-dinghy ” on Britain’s southern coast, having managed to escape the hellscape of northern France, making a mockery of Britain’s claim to secure borders. All of this is a threat to whichever pa...