Locals in Runcorn are up in arms over a luxury hotel still being used to house asylum seekers – despite Labour’s promise the migrants would be moved out.
Sir Keir Starmer / Daresbury Park Hotel in Runcorn (Image: Getty / Google)
Residents living near the Daresbury Park Hotel in Runcorn are angry with Labour over the continued use of the four-star accommodation to house asylum seekers, despite promises from the Government before the recent by-election that the migrants would be moved elsewhere.
The 425-bed hotel, that once was a hive of local activity and a popular wedding venue, has been housing asylum seekers for the last five years. During the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, Labour promised the site would close to migrants. However, after Reform UK’s humiliating victory over the governing party, the hotel is still hosting people that arrived in Britain illegally, according to MailOnline.
The Daresbury Park Hotel (Image: Google)
The Daresbury Park Hotel (Image: Google)
The new Reform UK MP for Runcorn and Helsby Sarah Pochin, responding to the news, said: “The people of Runcorn and Helsby have been let down so often by Labour that I will be keeping up the pressure to make sure their promise to shut down the Daresbury Park hotel is not an empty promise or one that has been made lightly.
“Given Labour’s promise to shut the hotel was made in the middle of the by-election I have my doubts that they will actually follow through with it.
“My constituents are rightly concerned about illegal immigrants being housed in their community so I will campaign to make sure that anyone moved out of the Daresbury hotel is not fast tracked into housing, pushing residents further down the housing ladder.”
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Nigel Farage and newly elected MP Sarah Pochin after the recount at the Runcorn by-election (Image: Getty)
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According to the outlet, residents are enraged that their hotel still isn’t open for them to use. They told the website that they felt that those living inside the accommodation were being afforded better treatment by the state than people in the local area.
Peter Robinson, 65, a retired dockworker, said: “It honestly just disgusts me that this hotel is still open and there are people in there in relative luxury while people around here haven’t got two pennies to rub together. You can’t get a doctors appointment, you can’t get a dentist appointment, people can’t get social housing.”
He went to say that homeless war veterans should be housed in the hotel before asylum seekers are. Mr Robinson then added that he had seen migrants using the fruit machines at a local bookmakers and even had enough money to order KFC. He said that lots of local people he knew didn’t have the money to afford such luxuries.
His outlook was shared by another resident. Jenny Williams, 55, said the closure of the hotel to the public was the reason Reform UK came out on top in the by-election earlier this month.
She added: “People want it used as a hotel, as a function for birthdays and weddings. They’re fed up seeing it fall into such disrepair. I’ve nothing against the asylum seekers but it does jar with me that we’re paying millions to hotel chains and yet councils are getting less money and services are stretched.”
The Home Office was approached by the MailOnline for comment. Britannia Hotels, which runs the Daresbury Park Hotel, was approached for comment.
