Military sites could be used as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, defence secretary says
Trevor Philips asks the defence secretary, John Healey, if Shabana Mahmood is going to put asylum seekers in “containers” in disused military facilities.
Healey said:
I think you’ll start to see Keir Starmer insist that dealing with the small boats, solving the immigration illegal immigration crisis, is part of the jobs the whole of government, not just the Home Office.
So with the Home Office, I have been putting military planners into their Border Command and into their planning for the future, and we are looking at the potential use of military and non military use sites for temporary accommodation for the people who come across on these small boats that may not have a right to be here or need to be processed before we can decide whether or not they should stay or whether or not we deport them like we have done in record numbers over the last year.
Healey did not confirm a date when these transfers to military facilities would happen but said he is working on the plans jointly with the Home Office. It comes after a wave of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers over the summer.
‘Solving the illegal immigration crisis is the job of the whole government, not just the Home Office’
Defence Secretary John Healey confirms the government is looking at using military facilities to temporarily house asylum seekers
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/27cXYyiW5U
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 7, 2025
Key events
Farage rows back on promise to stop small boats within two weeks if he becomes PM
Speaking at the Reform UK conference in Birmingham on Friday, Nigel Farage promised to stop small boat crossings within two weeks if he wins the next general election.
But in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg that aired on Sunday, Farage appeared to shift his position, admitting after being pressed that he would stop the small boats within two weeks of passing laws to deport people more quickly, which could take months to go through the legislative process.
“As soon as the law is in place, as soon as you have the ability to detain and deport you will stop it in two weeks,” he said.
Farage said Reform “actually” intends to deliver its promises, unlike other parties who he claims just say what the public wants to hear until they assume power.
At a press conference last month, Farage revealed a five-year plan to detain and deport all migrants who arrive in the UK illegally and suggested 600,000 people could be sent back over five years.
Farage has been accused of demonising all migrants with his increasingly right-wing rhetoric, with his proposals labelled as unworkable and undermining of basic human rights.
“Clear, swift, fair action” was taken over Angela Rayner’s tax affairs, John Healey told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
Asked whether people had a right to feel let down by Labour, who promised to clean up politics when in power, the defence secretary said: “These sort of things are part and parcel of government. It isn’t whether they happen, it’s how a prime minister and a government deals with them.”
“And I think we’ve seen this week clear, swift, fair action,” he added.
Angela Rayner is an ‘inspiration’ not a ‘victim’, defence secretary says
John Healey is being interviewed by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. He touches on Angela Rayner’s resignation and what her departure means for government.
As a reminder, Rayner, who as housing secretary underpaid about £40,000 stamp duty on her seaside flat, stepped down after breaching the ministerial code over her tax arrangements.
She stepped down as housing secretary, deputy prime minister and deputy Labour leader, a move which will likely trigger a new deputy leadership election by party members.
Healey told the BBC:
Our government will miss Angela Rayner. She has not been a victim, she’s under a lot of pressure … she’s been an inspiration to many, particularly to working class women.
She’s been a very effective minister, leading the overhaul, the biggest overhaul of employment rights in a generation, and also starting the planning reforms that will lead to us building a lot more homes.
So any government is stronger with Angela Rayner but we have a good new team in place now and that is our job.
Mahmood will be ‘just as tough as Cooper’ on Palestine Action, defence secretary says
John Healey also said Shabana Mahmood will be “just as tough as Cooper” on Palestine Action, the campaign group opposing Israel’s assault on Gaza that the government controversially proscribed under the Terrorism Act in July, making membership of or support of the group a criminal offence.
More than 425 people were arrested in London yesterday at the largest demonstration yet opposing the proscription of Palestine Action.
“I expect her to defend the decision the government has taken top proscribe Palestine Action because of what some of its members are responsible for and were planning and I expect her to do that in the courts as well,” Healey told Sky News.
“If we want to avoid a two tier policing and justice system in this country, when people break the law, there have to be consequences,” he added. “That’s what was happening yesterday.”
Military sites could be used as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, defence secretary says
Trevor Philips asks the defence secretary, John Healey, if Shabana Mahmood is going to put asylum seekers in “containers” in disused military facilities.
Healey said:
I think you’ll start to see Keir Starmer insist that dealing with the small boats, solving the immigration illegal immigration crisis, is part of the jobs the whole of government, not just the Home Office.
So with the Home Office, I have been putting military planners into their Border Command and into their planning for the future, and we are looking at the potential use of military and non military use sites for temporary accommodation for the people who come across on these small boats that may not have a right to be here or need to be processed before we can decide whether or not they should stay or whether or not we deport them like we have done in record numbers over the last year.
Healey did not confirm a date when these transfers to military facilities would happen but said he is working on the plans jointly with the Home Office. It comes after a wave of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers over the summer.
‘Solving the illegal immigration crisis is the job of the whole government, not just the Home Office’
Defence Secretary John Healey confirms the government is looking at using military facilities to temporarily house asylum seekers
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/27cXYyiW5U
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 7, 2025
Starmer has decided to ‘go up a gear’ and focus on the ‘next phase of delivery’ of government priorities, minister says
Defence secretary John Healey has been interviewed by Trevor Phillips on his Sky News programme this morning. He asks the defence secretary why Keir Starmer has replaced Yvette Cooper, the experienced former home secretary, with Shabana Mahmood as part of his reshuffle and not let her “get on with the job”.
Healey defends the reshuffle, suggesting it shows the government is “going up a gear” and starting on the “next phase of delivery”. He says Mahmood got to “grips” with prison and criminal justice reform and will be able to do the same in the Home Office over small boats.
Healey rejects the idea that the government reshuffle is an indicator that ministers had not been performing on their briefs.
“There is another story this last week, which is that Bridget Philipson has extended free childcare … and funded childcare that will save parents £7000 a year. Yvette Cooper tigethend up the rules for refugee families coming to Britain,” the defence secretary said.
New home secretary considering reform of European convention of human rights to head off Reform advance
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The new home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is expected to move Labour further to the right on migration to stop the advance of Reform, which has been enjoying a double digit poll lead having exploited a political vacuum left by the government over the summer.
Nigel Farage, Reform UK’s leader, has said there is every chance of a general election in 2027 and declared he will run on a pledge to “stop the boats” within two weeks of entering No 10.
The Sunday Times is reporting that Mahmood, conscious of Farage’s popularity with voters, is likely to want to reform the European convention on human rights (ECHR), with a source telling the paper that the former justice secretary would “start with the unthinkable and work backwards”.
Despite warnings that ECHR withdrawal would threaten the Good Friday agreement, Farage has insisted he would leave the convention and replace it with a British Bill of Rights applying only to British citizens and those who have a legal right to live in the UK. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative party leader, has also said she would look into leaving the ECHR.
Desperate to speed up asylum processing to bring down the backlog and end hotel use, Mahmood is set to announce shortly that hotels used to house asylum seekers will be moved into barracks on former military bases, according to the Telegraph.
It is also being reported that the UK government are close to agreeing a “one in, one out” returns deal with Germany, having already sealed one with France over the summer.
The deal with France allows the UK to return one person who has entered the country by irregular means in return for taking someone in France whose claim for asylum in the UK is expected to have a greater chance of success.
It has been hailed as a “gamechanging” by ministers but it will apply to a very small amount of asylum seekers, at least at first. As boats do not launch from Germany, the deal with Friedrich Merz’s government would more likely cover migrants who have crossed through the country to reach France, according to the Telegraph. We will have more on this later.
