as it seeks to move people out of hotels. John Healey also confirmed officials were considering other types of "non-military" accommodation. Just over 32,000 asylum seekers are currently in hotels, which represents about a third of the total number being housed in taxpayer-funded accommodation. Labour wants to accelerate its plan to end the use of hotels, which have become a focal point for anti-migrant protests.

Reports say that Shabana Mahmood, who replaced Yvette Cooper as home secretary on Friday, is set to announce proposals to house asylum seekers on military land within weeks. Two former military sites - MDP Wethersfield, a former RAF base in Essex, and Napier Barracks, a former military base in Kent - are already being used to house asylum seekers after being opened under the previous Tory government. Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the defence secretary confirmed the government was looking at additional "military and non-military sites for potential temporary accommodation".

His department is yet to confirm a list of sites, but Healey added that military planners were working with the Home Office on options. "What you are seeing from Keir Starmer now is this isn't just a job for the Home Office, it's an all of government effort," he added. The Home Office confirmed 1,097 people crossed the English Channel in small boats on Saturday, Mahmood's first full day in the job, underscoring the scale of the challenge she faces. The total number of crossings so far this year is now more than 30,000, the earliest point in a calendar year where that threshold has been reached. (BBC)