Dame Priti Patel has slammed the Home Office, saying they plan on using two former RAF bases - one near her constituency - to house migrants for up to half a decade. The former Home Secretary, who has campaigned fiercely against plans to house thousands of migrants in RAF Wethersfield in Essex, said Tory ministers have been evasive over their true plans. The department bypassed typical planning application rules, claiming the site would be temporary and for emergency use only. Now we see they've been planning to use the site for five years, she said. This is acceptable, she said, and said the lack of clarification has been alarming and staggering.
In an excoriating letter to Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, Dame Priti wrote that no clarification had been provided to her about the length of time that the Home Office expected to use the site for the purpose of housing migrants, despite multiple questions in Parliament and letters to the Secretary of State. The lack of a direct response to my questions relating to the length of time the Home Office plans to use the site for asylum accommodation gives the impression that the Home Office is being evasive. She said the Government's public information about the three sites, including in Essex, has been ineffective and made continuous references to the site being temporary. Dame Priti said that the revelations, forced out of a leak to the Telegraph, suggest that the government is secretive about its plans.