Harrogate MP's plea in Parliament for Government to reveal evidence on asylum seekers plan for Linton-on-Ouse

Harrogate’s MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, has called on the Government to publish the evidence and the full costs behind its plan to reopen the former RAF Linton-on-Ouse as large-scale asylum accommodation.

Speaking today in the Public Bill Committee on the Immigration and Asylum Bill, Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, backed two Liberal Democrat amendments – new clauses 30 and 31, tabled by Calum Miller MP for Bicester and Woodstock – which would require the Home Office to publish a full suitability assessment and a full breakdown of costs before any large site is used.

The Liberal Democrats pushed the amendments to a vote.

Despite winning cross-party support, including from Conservative members of the Committee, they were voted down by Government MPs by eight votes to six.

"Nobody is questioning the Government's duty to house people seeking asylum,” said Mr Gordon afterwards.

“What we are questioning is whether Linton-on-Ouse is the right place to do it and on every measure, it isn't.

"An isolated site with failing infrastructure, little transport and limited access to healthcare doesn't work for local residents, and it doesn't work for the people who would be sent there.

"These amendments ask two simple things.

“If a site is suitable, publish the evidence. If it's value for money, publish the costs.

“Public money has already been spent on this site once, in 2022, before the plan was abandoned.

“Taxpayers deserve to know what was spent, what more it would cost, and how it compares with the alternatives."

The Harrogate MP’s intervention follows controversial Government plans to convert the former military airbase in North Yorkshire into an asylum accommodation centre for up to 1,200 single adult males.

The idea has already run into heated opposition with North Yorkshire Council, local MPs, including Sir Julian Smith MP and Sir Alec Shelbrooke MP, and York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith all opposing the project and villagers complaining the choice of location is “completely inappropriate”.

Linton-on-Ouse Action Group points not only to the costs of the plan but to the rural village's small population, approximately 700 to 800 people, the possible impact on local policing, healthcare, and infrastructure, and concerns that the site was previously ruled out as inappropriate years ago.

Harrogate MP Tom Gordon said: "Government MPs have voted down a simple, cross-party request to publish the evidence and the costs.

“The Government talks endlessly about devolution and putting power in local hands.

“Yet here we have a Conservative-led council voting against it with cross party support, a Labour mayor opposed and MPs across party lines all saying no.

“I asked the Minister why she thinks they have all got it wrong.

“And still the decision is being made in Whitehall, with no prior engagement with the council at all.”