GB News host Stephen Dixon clashed with Conservative MP Matt Vickers over his calls to shut down the Epping migrant hotel, declaring the move would simply “move the problem somewhere else”.
Discussing the protests against the use of the Bell Hotel in Essex, Stephen argued that closing hotels is “not remotely practical” as the migrants are “already in Britain”.
Protests against migrant hotels have been sparked across the country this weekend, with demonstrators seen in Bournemouth, Leeds, Norwich and Portsmouth alongside the protests in Epping.
Delivering his verdict on the Epping migrant hotel, Vickers told GB News: “I think it should be closed. I think what’s gone on there and what is what is thought to have gone on in that part of the world is absolutely terrible.
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GB News host Stephen Dixon grilled Tory MP Matt Vickers on his call to close migrant hotels
“I think it should be closed, and I think we need to be closing more of these hotels.”
Defending the use of the Rwanda scheme by the Conservatives, Vickers argued: “The only way we’re going to solve this is by stopping people arriving, by putting that deterrent in place and making sure that people know when they arrive, when they decide to pay those people smugglers to come across the Channel that they’re not going to get to stay.
“They’ll stop paying and they’ll stop coming.”
Interjecting Vickers, Stephen hit back, pointing out: “When you say to close the hotel in Epping, the problem you’ve got is these people are here now. So you close the hotel in Epping, you’ve literally just got to move them somewhere else.
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Thousands of protesters took to the streets across the UK against the use of migrant hotels
“You are literally moving the problem to somebody else’s area.”
Vickers responded: “We were looking at alternatives to hotels before. That’s why we were closing hotels, because we were looking at alternatives. Whether that’s using different sorts of accommodation, like the Bibby Stockholm.”
Stephen interjected again, declaring there “isn’t anywhere else” to house migrants if the asylum seeker hotels are closed.
Vickers responded: “The numbers were coming down. Bibby Stockholm was one example, but there were other places. The reality is, when you put these people in hotels, not only is it the wrong thing to do, the reality is it costs the locals.
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Vickers told GB News that using migrant hotels is ‘hugely damaging to local economies’
“I went and met the people in Altrincham and all of the hospitality trade in that part of the world, 300 hotel rooms disappeared overnight. The people who used to visit the town then didn’t go to the restaurants, didn’t go out the pubs, didn’t shop in the shops.
“There were costs in terms of community confidence and people’s fears about security and some of the worst things that we’ve now seen come to pass.”
Warning of the economic impact of running migrant hotels, Vickers concluded: “These are huge costs to communities, as well as all the cancelled weddings and all the things that these venues house, as well as the actual financial costs.
“Taking these hotels out of circulation is hugely damaging to local economies.”
