Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has confirmed asylum seekers will finally start moving out of their taxpayer-funded hotel rooms in the coming days, with the first of 50 hotels closed shortly. The whole process will last until January…

Jenrick told the House:

“Ever since the Prime Minister, Home Secretary and I assumed office one year ago, we have been clear that this was completely unacceptable and must end as soon as practicable… The first 50 of these exits will begin in the coming days and will be complete by the end of January. But we will not stop there. As we continue to deliver on our strategy to stop the boats, we will be able to exit more hotels.”

The hotel bill for the 50,000 migrants is costing the taxpayer a whopping £8 million a day…

The High Court has refused a judicial review into the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to house asylum seekers, with a resident’s £25,000 legal claim tossed out by Justice Holgate this morning. Migrants are expected to return to the barge on 19th October, now the legionella outbreak has been contained. By which point the barge will have been empty for 68 days…

Today’s pointless legal case was proposed by Mayor of Portland and local councillor Carralyn Parkes, who argued before the hearing:

“If you or I want to put up a porch at our home, we need to apply for planning permission. It’s wrong that the Home Office does what it likes without complying with the same rules. If the Home Office had applied for planning permission, they would have had to consult with local people – but we never got the right to have our say. I believe that planning permission would have been refused.”

She crowdfunded £25,000 in a Jolyon-esque attempt to shift the barge, and lost. Eight days until its doors are re-opened…

Once again, channel crossings have set a new record. On Saturday, 872 migrants were detected crossing the channel – more than any other day in 2023. More migrants made the crossing on Saturday than in the entire month of March.

Rishi’s pledge to “stop the boats” is now in choppy waters after the month of August set another record for the most crossings of any month of the year. You don’t need A-level maths to work out that September isn’t looking good either…

Rishi Sunak has once again refused to commit to stopping the boats before the next election, even as the latest figures show 17,000 migrants have crossed the channel so far this year. A reminder that he stood behind a podium emblazoned with a big red “stop the boats” banner at the beginning of the year…

Now he’s in choppier waters. This morning he claimed:

“I am not complacent. I never said this would be easy. I never said it could be fixed overnight. We are going to attack it from every angle and not stop until we are done… We have got to stop the boats, that is why it is one of my five priorities. The current system is unsustainable and it is unfair. The best way to reduce pressure on local communities is to stop the number of people coming here in the first place […] I also want to be honest with people that it is a complex problem.”

Meanwhile NHS waiting lists are also at record highs. The tide isn’t turning…

Two thirds of voters expressing a preference agree that barges make acceptable housing for asylum seekers. According to new polling from YouGov, 68% of voters (who expressed a preference), agree that barges are acceptable, with 32% disagreeing. Of the majority, 40% say barges are “completely acceptable”, with 28% agreeing they are “somewhat acceptable”. Just 17% of all voters think barges are “completely unacceptable”. Once again, man of the people Lee Anderson has his finger on the pulse of public opinion.

The government’s small boats week is continuing into Tuesday, as this morning Alex Chalk was asked about Lee Anderson’s tempestuous comments. The Deputy Tory Chairman told the Express yesterday that “If they [illegal migrants] don’t like barges then they should f*ck off back to France.” You can always trust Lee to tell it like it is…

Chalk rowed in behind Lee’s comments on LBC:

“Lee Anderson expresses the righteous indignation of the British people. Yeah, he does it in salty terms, and that’s his style but his indignation is well placed… There is a lot of sense, in my respectful view, in what Lee said”

That’ll rock the boat with the usual suspects.