SHADOW Policing Minister Matt Vickers has called for the Bell Hotel in Epping to be closed.
Speaking about immigration on GB News, he said: “We need the government to commit to doing something about it. We had a deterrent in place. People need to know that if they arrive in this country, they will be detained and they will be removed, and then all of a sudden they will stop coming.
“We saw what happened when we started doing exactly the same with people from Albania. It was one of the top places from which people are arriving.
“The minute they were being shipped back, the number arriving fell by more than 90%. That is the way forward. There needs to be a deterrent. It’s a supply and demand issue.
He added: “We need to have something, but we need to have something beyond. Rwanda was one country, but actually the principle that if you arrive here, you are going back, you’re either going back to your own country, or you’re going to a safe third country, is the way forward.
“Actually, what we’ve seen more recently, since Labour came to power, the law has been changed to allow people who arrive here illegally to become British citizens. That is like rolling out the red carpet. It’s inviting people in, and it’s making the situation a lot worse.
“It’s up by something like 50%, the number of people arriving in the UK. There are more hotels opening. Hotels are being closed. They’re now opening, and we’re actually seeing less of those people who’ve arrived illegally being removed from the country. It’s all going the wrong way.”
On the protests at the Bell Hotel in Epping, he said: “I think it should be closed. I think what’s gone on there…is absolutely terrible. I think it should be closed. I think we need to be closing more of these hotels.
“But 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.”
He added: “I went and met the people in Altrincham, and they’re all in 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 to the pubs, didn’t shop in the shops.
“They said they had 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. All those are huge costs to communities, as well as all the cancelled weddings and all the things at these venues it has, as well as the actual financial costs.
“Taking these hotels out of circulation is hugely damaging to local economies.”
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