Shabana Mahmood to end duty to support some asylum seekers in bid to shut hotels

Shabana Mahmood will end the Government’s duty to support all destitute asylum seekers as she seeks to shut more asylum hotels, sources have said.

The Home Secretary intends to remove support from some asylum seekers and begin evicting people from hotels in the spring.

In a move first reported by the i paper, Ms Mahmood will target asylum seekers who could support themselves financially but choose not to, along with those who have a right to work, who break the law or work illegally, and those who refuse an order to leave the UK.

This is expected to allow her to remove support from thousands of the 111,651 people receiving payments or accommodation from the Government.

But many are likely to remain eligible for support.

Around 36,000 asylum seekers were housed in hotels at the end of September, the latest available figures show, with the Home Office saying fewer than 200 hotels are now in use.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Government is attempting to demonstrate progress on deterring small boat crossings and cutting the asylum bill, with Ms Mahmood said to expect further hotel closures by April.

Other policies under consideration, according to the i paper, include finding alternative accommodation for asylum seekers, such as military barracks or multiple-occupation houses, expanding the one-in, one-out deal with France and striking a new agreement with Germany.

Asylum seekers from Syria could also face removal to their home country, with the Government deeming it safer after the fall of the Assad regime at the end of 2024.

A Labour source said: “The Home Secretary is a woman in a hurry. She is working tirelessly to introduce these reforms to restore order and control to our borders.”

Some 41,472 people crossed the Channel in small boats last year, the second-highest annual total on record but still lower than the peak year of 2022 when there were 45,774 crossings.

So far in 2026, just 32 people have made the crossing, arriving in a single boat on January 5.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick used a Daily Telegraph column to argue that “mass migration and the abject failure of integration” had left the police unable to “assert control or maintain order” in some parts of the country due to the influence of “Islamism”.

Pointing to the row over West Midlands Police’s decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a match against Aston Villa last year, he said: “The British state has failed the British people by facilitating this disastrous experiment with mass migration over the past 25 years.

“Now its institutions refuse to act against the problem of Islamism or even acknowledge it.”