Labour’s borders minister today defended plans for 1,200 migrants to be housed near an Oxfordshire village with a population of just 400.

Anna Turley said there needed to be a ‘fair and equitable system’ for distributing asylum seekers across the country.

She also doubled down on Andy Burnham’s insistence that wealthier areas must ‘play their part’ in housing migrants.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that he will make sure arrivals are not only placed in the ‘poorest communities’ when quizzed about proposals for a migrant camp near Piddington.

Under Home Office plans, a former military base in Bicester, Oxfordshire, will provide accommodation for 1,250 male asylum seekers.

But the residents of Piddington – a tiny village of around 400 residents near to the proposed site – have voted to stage a symbolic referendum on leaving the UK as part of their protests against the plans.

Ms Turley defended the proposals this morning, telling LBC: ‘This is about fairness.

‘This is making sure that there is distribution around the country, and this is about a more fair and equitable system that limits the impact on local communities.’

Labour’s borders minister Anna Turley defended plans for 1,200 migrants to be housed near an Oxfordshire village with a population of just 400

The residents of Piddington are protesting against plans for a migrant camp at a nearby former military base

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has insisted that wealthier areas must ‘play their part’ in housing migrants

Asked about a potential influx of asylum seekers three times as large as Piddington’s population, the Home Office minister said: ‘Well, I suppose they’re not going to be in the village. They’re going to be contained in a former military base.’

But pressed on whether asylum seekers would be free to leave the site, Ms Turley replied: ‘They will be allowed out, but everything they need will be on that site. So they will be managed. They will be contained.’

She added: ‘They’re on a self-contained site. We are looking at former military bases around the country.

‘We are also looking at former industrial sites, student accommodation, other means by which we can put people in secure places that is contained, that is manageable and… is more affordable than putting people in hotels.

‘We know where people are. We can manage the system.’

Asked if she would be happy for a similar number of people to arrive in her Redcar constituency, Ms Turley said: ‘We don’t have a former military base… but the reality is it’s about fairness.’

She continued: ‘The point the Prime Minister was making was this is about fairness.

‘We take our fair share of asylum seekers in Redcar, and the point is lots of working class places around the country – I talked about Blackpool, places with hotels – have had to bear more than their fair share.

‘And this is about fairness. This is making sure that there is distribution around the country, and that this is about a more fair and equitable system that limits the impact on local communities.

‘By having secure and maintained and managed facilities like former military bases, it’s a much better way to keep people in one place and reduce the impact on local communities.’

The Government has announced it is closing asylum provision in the Grand Metropole Hotel on Blackpool promenade.

In another interview with BBC Breakfast, Ms Turley said areas such as Blackpool, where there are lower property prices, had already taken their ‘fair share’ of asylum seekers, which had put a ‘huge burden’ on communities and created ‘real civil unrest’.

She added that areas would only have to take asylum seekers for which they have capacity, as she said housing them on former military barracks and industrial sites was a better idea than in hotels. 

‘The priority for us now is making sure that we look after asylum seekers in a secure place, in a place that is much more appropriate and where we limit the impact on local communities,’ she said.

Ms Turley also told Times Radio that the Government will ‘redouble’ its efforts to stop migrants crossing the Channel in dinghies.

She said despite one boat arriving on British shores carrying a record 230 people earlier this week, generally small boat crossings had fallen by 40 per cent.

‘That is some substantial progress and I think some of that has had a dispersive effect, that you can see these people traffickers, these smugglers, these gangs are getting increasingly desperate, they’re forcing more and more people onto boats that are absolutely not seaworthy and it’s horrifying to see,’ she added. ‘They are moving further down the coast.

‘So we’ve got to be relentless, keep redoubling our efforts and not be complacent about the progress we’ve made, but continue to work hard on that.’

A record-breaking dinghy carried some 230 migrants across the English Channel on Monday

Mr Burnham himself was asked on Tuesday about the plans for a migrant camp near Piddington.

He told GB News: ‘I will listen to what people are saying and respond to the concerns that they are putting forward.

‘I don’t know the issue yet in detail, but in some ways, as I understand it, it is about creating secure space.’

The PM added: ‘It’s obviously going to be challenging, but I am prepared always to listen to people, to work with people and to pick up legitimate concerns, and I will address those concerns.

‘I do have to say, we cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers. I do believe all parts of the country need to work, to play their part.

‘We understand people’s concerns and I will look into the issues raised by the good people of Piddington.’

In response to the PM’s comments, Tory shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Andy Burnham is planning to dish out another vindictive punishment beating to the UK’s middle classes.

‘Labour has hammered hard-working families with punitive tax increases galore, increased regulation and soaring energy bills.

‘Now, Burnham plans to deliberately flood more neighbourhoods with thousands of illegal immigrants who he has let into this country, and many of whom will commit serious crimes including rape and murder.’