To agree with Andy Burnham that it’s about time the middle classes took their fair share

[Morningteacup2]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/08/11/burnham-middle-class-areas-must-take-more-hotel-migrants/

Not a huge fan of Labour I must say, but this is well overdue!

This is very true and we can't blame anyone for wanting a slice of our green and pleasant land.
However it's been said many times all rules and definitons and laws applied to a very different time. They must be updated and changed .8

She's not racist, she's a realist. Give it a rest.

Are you not concerned about paedophiles? They are released no one is allowed to know where they live, your neighbours could be one for all you know. Most then go onto re offend!

Yes and as Our Gary is so keen to pay more tax, let him make a donation to the tax office-the mechanism is already in place to do that- for the sole purpose of building them.

I am no fan of Farage, but calling him “far-right” is insulting to the Jewish folk and what they went through. He is not that. Anti illegal migration = the first job on a PM = protecting their citizens.

The Champagne Swivelling class need some unvetted illegal men dropped in their communities to understand what it is like living with them (they are predatory without their women).

The asylum seekers and illegal immigrants arent wanted and have no right to be here. They should be sent packing not encouraged further by a prime minister who seems to be as effectual as a chocolate fireguard. If the incumbent government refuses to do anything then they are handing the next election victory to reform.

The prime minister still doesnt seem to understand that the British people do not want uncontrolled immigration and constant invasion by dinghy so maybe he needs a clearer message using smaller words.

We do not want unvetted illegal migrants and asylum seekers. They should be deported. He needs to get control over the UK borders. If he doesnt want to do that then he will be handing power to reform at the next opportunity for an election.

Yeah! So what.

You're out of touch if you think people care about being called racist about this situation any more.

You may as well shout, "Arse Boils and Pear Drops" for all the notice I-and and an increasing number of people pay to the empty yell of Racism.

How does that work in practice?

The usual migrant hotels are bottom of the barrell, cheap, with low occupancy and often on the brink of closure. They tender for government contracts at low rates to fill rooms and feed the residents low cost food.

Hotels in middle class areas tend to be nicer hotels with better occupancy and higher room rates. Their food is more expensive and they usually have higher priced bars supporting them.

They probably arent going to bid for those contracts. If they did they arent going to be as competitive as the cheaper area hotels.

Which leaves two options, neither are of benefit to the British public.

Option 1 - The government forces a private commercial entity to accept an unwanted and lower than commercially viable government contract - which is authoritarian and results in enforced commercial loses of private business.

Option 2 - The government pays an inflated cost to the middle class area hotel and the tax payer picks up the bill. This comes with the added impact of the lower priced hotel, if holding the exisiting contract, closing down as most of the ones that have been awarded the contracts were on the brink of collapse. And, thats before we get to the frothing over migrants being housed in nicer hotels considering the they have branded the shittest-of-the-shit Britannia type hotels the height of luxury.

The elephant in the room is the ECHR. Until we depart from that, we are going to face more obstacles in deporting foreign criminals and illegal immigrants.

Yes we never have a choice

The whole point is they won’t be in hotels anymore. The government made a commitment to close the asylum seeker hotels.

They're moving them to HMOs instead, which could be anywhere.

Interesting replies on here. I used to work for the Home Office in Greater London until last year, and have had to live with illegal immigration for the last 30 years. This is the tip of the iceberg. Some of the things I have seen over the years would make your blood boil.

But yes, illegal immigration in Greater London has been awful. Almost impossible to integrate the vast majority into British society, although many are grateful and want to work/better themselves. However, there is a mentality that we'll accommodate for their needs instead. As most are not permitted to work, they hang around town centres, bored and fed up. In the area I live, the overflow of migrants has become so bad, it's a no go area for most of the time, and crime has definitely increased, despite the stats bandied about.

The targets at work were incredibly tough and the legal system works against the problem. It doesn't surprise me that the only option is to spread these people across rural areas, as the towns are just full.

Option 3, we no longer hold ourselves to a humanitarian framework which is continuously abused. Why are we still being held to a higher degree of morality than extreme cultures who don't want to live by western rules?

Gird yourself @LoudTealHare

ready…..ready….? Okay here goes…

I am fully capable of being concerned about umpteen things at the same time.

you’d be amazed how many of us have that capability.

My mistake, but the point still stands.

I am aware that middle class areas have cheaper house, but they arent the properties that HMO landlords are struggling to fill given the number of working professionals still living in HMOs.

So why would a HMO landlord apply for the contract and why should the government pay more of tax payer money just to house them in that area?

I grew up in South London in the 70s and 80s and am from an immigrant background myself. I’m still here, but I don’t know how long for. I used to feel very positively about multiculturalism and still love aspects of it, but when I’m out and about, I’m surrounded by people on e-bikes zipping past with balaclavas on their faces. People are having phones snatched all the time, footage went out of someone on a moped doing a robbery with a huge machete on our local night street, last night someone was shot dead in a spot where I often park.
When I’m out and about I’m surrounded by people who have no desire to interact or communicate with me.
However, I can go to areas that are completely sheltered from all of this, and I can imagine those people being very sanctimonious about the whole issue, but they’re not walking around wondering whether they’re going to be stabbed or shot.

Its getting to the stage that everyone has just had enough. Genuine asylum seekers are one thing but the majority are actually economic migrants in reality - that we just cant afford to help anymore. The squeeze is hitting most, even if they prefer not to admit it.

Word in the circles that are in the know - is that this is not Andy Burnham being “fair”. The govt has run out of hotels/accommodations in the cheaper towns, they are now squeezed and going further out. They will be criticised for spending on expensive hotels, but the media mob won’t go after them as Andy B has already “explained it is all about fairness”.

Dont swallow the headlines.

Welcome to modern Britain where the majority of the population is male.

It’s been quite the change. About time.

But non- white people don’t like what’s going on with the boats either and they’re quite open about it because they don’t have to worry about being called racist.

Yes, they will probably use the old Lottery advert, with a big finger coming down from the sky and shouting, " It Could be You!"

They will accompany it with some stirring music, "Ode to Joy" would be appropriate while the lady who provies the voice over for Master Chef will say something like:

"We all love our land and are proud of the welcome we give to those who choose to come here.

Each week, a new area will benefit from the chance to experience a rich and diverse society, a chance for your neighbourhood to grow in love and warmth as it welcomes those destined to take us forward and build our future.

Please check this week's postcodes-appearing on screen now- to discover if your neighbourhood is among this week's lucky winners.

It could be you!"

There are migrant hotels in Sutton Coldfield. I wouldn’t have thought you could get much more middle class!

Every time they talk about being in support of stopping the boats, they are ignored. They are meant to keep quiet.

Because we colonised huge swathes of the world, destabilised large numbers of countries and plundered their wealth to financially elevate our small island country. Many of those countries indigenous people were decimated not only by violence but by the rampant disease we brought.

We then, in most cases, fucked off out leaving immature leadership and countries unable to effectively lead themselves and prosper.

We have also, in more recent times, used our power to interfere in the governance of other nations, start wars under the guise of humanitarian motives, destabilising entire geographical regions.

We are now reaping what we sowed and to do anything other than be humanitarian and accommodating to migrants would be political suicide on the, already unstable, world stage. And, pretty revolting.