Some asylum seekers will be told to pay for their own accommodation as the Government attempts to close down asylum hotels, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said. And she confirmed that the UK is pushing France to take tougher action to stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

Ms Cooper insisted the Government would meet its target of removing asylum seekers from hotels by the end of this Parliament, and said some people who apply for asylum could be told to pay for their own accommodation. She said an increasing number of foreign students had started applying for asylum. “If they have been here, working or studying, they should have funding to support themselves and shouldn’t be going into asylum accommodation,” she said.

Accommodation for asylum seekers is expected to cost more than £15billion, with the bulk of the money spent on hotels, the National Audit Office warned in May. And last month, a House of Lords Committee was told by David Bolt, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, that the Government would fail to meet its target of closing the hotels. He said: “There is simply not sufficient housing stock to be able to deal with the sorts of numbers that are in the system.”

But Ms Cooper insisted the Home Office would succeed in clearing the backlog of asylum seekers by processing claims faster.

She also confirmed that the Government is pushing France to make more effort to stop criminal gangs sending asylum seekers across the Channel in small boats while the boats are still in French waters.

The Home Secretary said: “One of the things we have been looking at in particular is around the maritime arrangements, where we have seen the gangs take advantage of the fact that the current French rules prevent French law enforcement from intervening in French waters.

“The French interior minister and I both agree that those rules need to change, and that’s why he’s instigated this maritime review.”

Ms Cooper said: “We obviously want to see that come into place as rapidly as possible, to prevent boat crossings taking place in the first place.”

A tough new vetting regime to root out police officers who abuse their position will be introduced amid fears the public has lost confidence in the boys in blue, the Home Secretary said.

Ms Cooper said a White Paper due later this year would enforce higher standards in police forces.

It follows the murder in 2021 of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped, raped and killed by off-duty Metropolitan Police constable Wayne Couzens.

Ms Cooper said the case “revealed a lack of proper vetting standards and standards in the system.” She promised: “We will set out reforms around raising standards in policing across the board”.

Public confidence had also been hit by a sense that high streets had become “easy territory for organised crime to operate,” she said.

Speaking to a House of Lords Committee, Ms Cooper suggested there could be radical changes to the current arrangement of having 43 separate police forces across England and Wales, some much larger than others.

She said the White Paper “does need to address the issue that we’ve got the 43 different forces making 43 different sets of decisions”.