Labour is thought to be considering paying asylum seekers £100 per week to reduce the cost of public-funded hotels.
Labour ‘dislike England and Englishness’ (Image: Getty / Daily Express)
Labour is “rewarding men who break into our country” with its potential £100 asylum seeker payment, according to a Reform member. Appearing on the Daily Expresso with host JJ Anisiobi, Reform UK’s former Education and Families spokesperson, Belinda De Lucy, claimed Labour “dislikes England and Englishness” as news of the payments emerged.
Ministers are understood to be considering paying migrants £100 per week to cut the cost of housing asylum seekers by a seventh and stop reliance on asylum hotels, which currently cost £5.5 million a day. However, Ms De Lucy said plans were a “scandal”, stating Labour would not do anything to “stop the boats”.
“I think there is a dislike for Englishness in England from the Labour Party,” Ms De Lucy claimed. “I think they would rather Britain suffer, sacrifice our borders and sacrifice their people than upset the liberal global stage.”
Addressing the host, she continued: “They no longer work for national applause, JJ, they work for global liberal applause, and so they will not do anything to stop the boats because there’s no political will for it.”
The Reform spokesperson claimed Labour could “stop the boats if they wanted to”, but it was part of a “deliberate” move to bring in workers for large corporations, among “many reasons”.
The payment is reportedly being considered by ministers as a way to help asylum seekers live with someone they know, rather than in a taxpayer-funded hotel. It is understood it would be given in addition to the £49.18 a week that they currently receive.
It comes as part of Sir Keir Starmer‘s promise to stop the use of asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament in 2029.
As of June 2025, more than 32,000 migrants were housed in 200 hotels, according to official data, at an average cost of £145 per night.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, also condemned the moves as a “disgrace”. He said: “The idea of handing out taxpayers’ hard-earned money to people who illegally entered the country is morally repugnant.”
The Reform UK spokesperson pointed to the £500 payment to Hadush Kebatu before he was deported, whose sexual assault on a girl in Epping sparked mass protests across the UK against asylum seeker hotels.
