Home Secretary 'advised to scrap asylum seekers plan for air base'
Home Secretary Suella Braverman was advised to scrap plans to house asylum seekers at a former RAF base, it has been reported.
According to an email reportedly seen by the BBC in February, a senior Home Office official advised the home secretary to stop work at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, warning of "significant challenges to progress".
The email from the Resettlement, Asylum Support and Integration Directorate, which formed part of the evidence, recommended the Home Secretary "agree to stop work on proposals for RAF Scampton".
The Government announced in March that it would house asylum-seekers at two former military bases – RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and MDP Wethersfield in Essex – and a potential third.
West Lindsey District Council, which has secured funds from a developer to regenerate the site, on Thursday lost the first round of a High Court challenge to the plans.
Mr Justice Kerr had been asked to impose an interim injunction, preventing the Home Office from moving "materials, equipment or people" onto the land, but he dismissed the council's application.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick in March unveiled plans to house asylum seekers in disused military bases to accommodate their "essential living needs and nothing more" to reduce reliance on hotels.
In response, Braintree District Council brought legal action over the proposed use of Wethersfield in Essex.
The council now says it aims to appeal after losing the High Court fight over these Home Office proposals to house asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield, a Ministry of Defence Police facility.
RAF Scampton was the home of the famous Red Arrows Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team for 20 years until they moved at the end of 2022.
The Lincolnshire base was also home to the 617 Squadron during the Second World War when they won fame for daring night attacks on German dams in 1943, which resulted in them being called the Dambusters.
Amid the continuing fight over Government plans to house asylum seekers at the base the grave of the Dambusters' dog could be moved from Scampton.
The RAF wants to move the dog's remains and headstone to where the squadron is now based, at RAF Marham in Norfolk.
But, because they are within the curtilage of a Grade II-listed aircraft hangar, the RAF needs consent, something the local council opposes as it believes future generations would be deprived of seeing the base's history.
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