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!

I would rather he find a permanent solution to stopping illegal immigration.

This!!! But as I say, it’s pretty much spread around as it is

Agreed. Remember Emily Thornberry and her palpable digust whilst driving through a council estate and passing a house with 'shock horror' a St George flag and a white van outside.

These often young men with medieval views of women are not the Doctors and Engineers of the future. They throw their passports away. They pretend to be under 18, fleeing for their lives or claim to be gay, have the most shocking views of women and their place in society.

We cannot send them back. They lie about who they are and where they are from.

200 plus came over on one boat. So we really want these sort of people coming to the UK?

This.

I think the point is that if migrants were housed in middle-class areas, a lot of the opposition to deportations would evaporate.

It’s already happening in the lower and middle- middle class’ towns and has been for some time. There has been a significant change in a lot of these towns in the last 5-10 years.

It’s the very naice expensive towns, expensive villages, and the more remote areas that haven’t been affected (yet). And these areas usually vote Green, hold ‘refugees welcome’ walks and tell everyone else how awful they are if they think differently.

Well, quite. It's perfectly reasonable to expect prison staff to get cancer in exchange for pretty crappy wages. How dare they expect a right to have their health not permanently affected by their working environment?

I live on SW London/Surrey borders where you need 1mil to buy a house. The 4* hotel nearby for a couple of years housed Afghans who had worked for the UK government before the withdraw (and also British women escaping DV). It worked relatively well- one man got "a bit stabby" with another man in the hotel but part of the reason it worked is they already had their families with them, I actually thought it was fair enough as their employer was the reason the Taliban were after them. I dont know where they went because it's the hotel again now. I think they should be the exception though, the ones coming now just need to be returned

Well hopefully it will stop lots of middle-class people voting Labour like so many do on
MN because they aren't affected by the illegal immigrants.

Did anybody see that awful photo in France of the baby being held up on the dingy? I don't know whether it was fake or not? No women around, just the usual men.

Labour is already reducing the use of hotels though. I think this is more likely to be community dispersal housing where the property owner approaches the Home office and negotiates a contract. Very convenient for the government because there is no involvement from local authorities and no one knows how much is being spent.

Yes this ,, instead of asking all parts of the UK to shove over and get on with it

I live in a very middle class city. We have two hotels used for asylum seekers.

the only objectors are those who support Glasgow rangers and reform.

Our middle class city is a City of Sanctuary

The left hate white people, they really don’t care whether you’re middle or working class. I’m not sure what class I even am I earn minimum wage but am partial to m and s bakery which apparently makes me middle class, “class” discussions always are so stupid.

By “middle class areas” Andy just means areas that are still majority white

I’m not pro Burnham at all but wonder if this is a north / south thing as some areas of the north have been disproportionately hit with with asylum seekers. Given his general pro north approach it would make sense for him to see how the south like it (yes I know some areas are also heavily affected). That said he could do something more useful and actually deal with the issue.

I think a lot of words get used up on the precise technical differences between legal, illegal, irregular, asylum seeking, granted, visa, ILR etc etc.

As a legal immigrant on a Skilled Worker visa (and definitely a net taxpayer, and doing my best to integrate, including marrying a British person) I do appreciate it when people try to make this distinction.

But the legal categories don't line up neatly with what people perceive on the streets. People look around the high street and react to the sight of a bunch of random foreign people who've suddenly appeared out of nowhere in large numbers in their town, milling around during the day.

"Oh, technically that person had their grant approved and anyway it's not illegal to seek asylum even if you came through an irregular route!"

"Oh, technically that person got sponsored by their cousin who works in a minimart so they're actually a skilled worker who contributes more than you, you lazy local!"

"Oh, technically that person overstayed their visa 20 years ago but they've now got ILR on the basis of long residence, it's irrelevant that they've been in and out of jail that whole time!"

There's no need to tie ourselves in these stupid knots. The problem is not any of these very broad categories, it's persistent, ongoing, low-quality immigration across all categories.

Which is awful in itself

what is wrong with areas being like this anyway. It’s England.

A migrant hotel was quietly created near our old house a few years - the big problem was a surge in crime in the local area. They had to increase security at the supermarket nearby as there were a number of incidents. All returned back to normal after it was closed

But the country can’t afford the cost of housing them in cheap areas. How can the country afford to pay double, triple or more to house them in expensive areas? We are in desperate straits financially as it is.
I think it’s a very difficult situation and have never criticised working class people for complaining about hostels in their neighbourhoods.

Excellent post

Yes - they should all have been put in prison for endangering a child. There is no reason whatsoever that that baby needed to be put on a dinghy from France to the UK. It is one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen in a long time.

Divert some of the billions of the Foreign Aid budget that goes to the particular countries that are disgorging their men here. Use it to collaborate with Europol and try and smash the trafficking gangs. Go to the source. I realise that post Brexit Uk is not a formal member of Europol but it still co operates with it.

I dunno. I often wonder where all the billions in Foreign Aid actually goes, when thousands and thousands of the recipient country's male population seem to want to leave en masse anyway. Maybe some of the billions is used to pay backhanders to the traffickers. I wouldn't be surprised. Now that would be an interesting thought.

I fully admit that I don't know much about how Foreign Aid budget is dispersed or accounted for. However I'm sure I will be told soon enough.

Not fake. The video is linked on another thread.

City of London, one of the richest places on the planet, allots 100 per cent its social housing to illegal migrants.

No hope for local families or workers, like the teachers and cleaners who work there.

No hope for the poor sods from Bangladesh who’ve had to put up with the non-trendy slums of the East End for 40
years.

Illegal migrants must be returned. Pinching the houses of locals, whether they’re rich or poor, isn’t on.