EXCLUSIVE: Councils forking out £50,000 to fast track illegal migrants' citizenships as HMOs filled

10,000 more illegal migrants and asylum seekers are being moved into HMOs across Britain. 10,000 of them. And this exclusive story I'm going to reveal in just a moment's time is also gonna make your blood boil. But back to HMO Britain for just a moment. These 10,000 unvetted illegals will be moved into houses next to you, your family members, children, grandparents, up and down the country, all paid for by you with no security to protect your neighborhood. While you fork out record high taxes and suffer under severe cost of living crises perpetuated by this government while it's all happening. There are now 68,719 asylum seekers living in houses, flats and bedsits in communities across this country. And it's going to get worse, as Shabana Mahmood has promised to shut all migrant hotels and move them to other sites such as disused military bases and indeed eventually HMOs because that's where it gets worse, isn't it? And a GB News exclusive, I can reveal that some councils are now forking out 50 grand of your cash to help fast track illegal migrants, British citizenship applications. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Paul Council has handed out that 50 grand to a charity called International Care Network. It's a charity that helps British citizenship applications, visa extensions and more. All the money is going to a contract for them with a charity that funds the so-called community hub for refugees and asylum seekers. And it's been well reported that Bournemouth locals are deeply unhappy at the number of migrant hotels in the seaside town, including three prominent ones on the seafront, no less. And let's not forget the shocking case of Mohamed Abdullah, a small boat migrant who was due to be sentenced after being found guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman in a portable toilet on the Bournemouth seafront in July 2025. The court heard that he preyed on the girl when she'd had a few drinks and been separated from her friends. But Bournemouth has seen a rise in antisocial behaviour and robbery while reported instances of rape in the area have more than tripled the past decade, up 276% from 2014 levels. Surely, 50 grand of your money is better spent tackling those issues rather than funding schemes to secure illegal migrants, British citizenships. What do you think? So remember, your council tax goes up and your rent and mortgages increase when the value of your house plummets and your neighbourhood seems less safe when towns that used to be holiday destinations turn into crime hotspots. This is where your council's priorities lie. Let's get the thoughts of my panel. Former Conservative MP, Louise Mencius here, Reform UK MP for Romford, Andrew Rosindell, and former Labour Special Advisor, Paul Richards. Andrew, I'm gonna start with you. Let's first of all talk about HMOs and I wanna talk about this 50 grand stuff because it's shocking to me. HMO Britain is now a phrase that Andy Burnham has coined, which I think surprised quite a lot of people because it's a feeling that many people show up and down the country. It's causing great community tensions. Is it the solution the British public want to the migrant crisis? Absolutely not. So in my constituency in Romford, we've had a number of HMOs going into residential areas, family communities, which have been ruined because people coming in, many of whom have no respect for the local community, crime increases, and the family-friendly atmosphere that people expect in small communities and neighbourhoods goes. And it simply is not acceptable. HMOs should not be happening in our neighbourhoods and I am implacably opposed to them. And many MPs have got the same problem in their constituencies as well. We shouldn't be allowing them. A local council should be simply saying, no, we're not gonna have HMOs in residential areas. Simple as that. Louise, this of course started under the Conservative government. I think to be fair to the Tories, you can't keep blaming them all the time for what's happened in the past. The past is the past. I think the party has changed. Kerry Badenock is much tougher on this issue. Do you think HMOs are necessary? And do you think that Shabana Mahmood is making the right decision? I would argue she's the toughest Home Secretary we've had for a very long time. And I know there's a lot of rhetoric there, but HMOs, and I warned about this months ago when everyone was talking about hotels being the worst thing to happen. I said, HMOs are coming next. And that means you're gonna be streets with illegal migrants living in them, perhaps next to you. Well, I would say, look, reform lost the last four by-elections disastrously, perhaps because they accepted the defection of Robert Jenrick, who boasted in the House of Commons about how many extra hotels and how many extra places he personally had secured for all these migrants and asylum seekers. There's plenty of blame to go around. But I think it's not helpful really to look at the past totally. We should go, we are where we are. Where are we gonna go from here? And I don't believe, I looked up that council because I almost couldn't believe the story. It's run by the Lib Dems. Don't vote for them. But why are we giving migrants and asylum seekers money to become British when they came here illegally in the first place? They're not the people that we want. And also, why are we paying to give them leisure activities? If it was up to me, I would have them picking up litter by the side of the road if they don't have a job for eight hours a day to make actual work looking attractive. They should be giving to this country, not taking from it. No, I absolutely concur with you. But Paul, before we come on to this 50 grand, which I think is gonna boil people's blood. Tiny amount of money, because we talk in the billions these days, don't we, because of inflation. But it's still a lot of money to many people when it comes to their council tax. HMOs though, this could be Shabana Mahmood's legacy. This could, if she doesn't manage to deport illegal migrants, and we've seen, whilst the government talk up deportations, they're talking mostly about migrants that have come here and abused the visa system where they've deported. We know, recently, there was a report that only a few hundred actual illegal small boat migrants have been deported. HMOs are seriously concerning to people. Is Shabana Mahmood making a fatal error here? The issue is, how do you choke off the supply so you stop people coming here in the first place who shouldn't be here? How do you process them much faster so they're not hanging around for months or years? How do you accommodate them while they are here before they are either assimilated in society or they leave? And those, at each of those stages, you have to have a proper policy that works. Now, the hotels were a disaster. We could all agree on that, by the way. It cost a fortune, and it was entirely the wrong thing. So our policy was then putting people into these big disused military camps, which again, have created these flashpoints. So people don't like that either. But it's the problem with the military camps. I mean, first of all, I hate the idea. I've visited many of these places. I've interviewed people living on the backs of some of these military bases. They are terrified, and they are unhappy, and they're very, and I don't blame them. Cannot blame the people who live there. One of the guys I interviewed has young daughters living on the back, and they've got footage of illegal migrants wandering onto his property in the dead of night, and it's scary. But why are they not kept in the military base? We don't know who these people are. They are unvetted. There's enough evidence to spook the public into not wanting these people anywhere near them. And yet, the Home Secretary hasn't said, no, keep them in the military bases. Detain them in there. They're quite big. We can look after them while they're in there, and then evaluate them. I think the Home Office would say, if they were here, though, that creates an unbelievably combustible set of circumstances, where you would have, you know, deliberately fires being set, and rioting, and violence towards the people sent to guard them, and having people being released to go for a walk, and so on, allows some of that steam to let off. Well, maybe, Paul, we shouldn't have them in the country in the first place. Well, that's what I'm saying, and quite interesting to see what this charity is actually doing, because if it's about faster processing, then that's probably money well spent. Let's find out. Military bases, HMOs, hotels, none of it should be happening. These people shouldn't be in this country at all. Now, we had a policy of sending them to a third country, which the Labour Party jettisoned. Well, we, the Conservatives, when I was a Conservative, I stood on that manifesto at the last election, but it didn't happen. Labour jettisoned the Rwanda policy on day one. Shameful. We could have actually done something with this problem, but the Labour Party let the country down. They didn't smash the gangs. They didn't solve the problem, and now we're faced with a calamity. Before you come back, let's bring Louise back in. Go on. I don't think that we need to be framing this debate about how do we get migrants out and how do we do deportations. If it was up to me, and people may be surprised about this, I would take a leaf out of Donald Trump's book. The only thing required to secure our border is will. If it was up to me, I would have the Royal Navy patrol the channel instead of stopping the boats. I can think of a really easy way to stop the boats. Go down to Portsmouth, call the Royal Navy, put some small boats in the channel and patrol it. Here's what most people don't realise. Your personal data isn't just floating around. It's being bought and sold every single day by data brokers. That means employers, strangers, scammers, and even criminals can access it. And that's how identity theft, fraud, and harassment starts. Now, sure, you could try removing it yourself, but it takes hours of forms and emails. And even then, it usually pops right back up. That's why this video is brought to you by Incogni. Incogni contacts data brokers on your behalf and demands your information is deleted from their databases. And they keep on doing it to make sure it stays gone. And they've just launched an unlimited plan with custom removals. So if your info appears on some random website, you can paste the link and their privacy team will personally work to get it taken down. It's simple. Click the link in the description, create your account, give permission, and they handle the rest. Head to incogni.com forward slash GB news. And with the code GB news, you can get a huge 60% off an annual plan. Click the link in the description or scan the QR code now. It works out at less than a coffee a month. It's also totally risk-free for 30 days. Take back control of your personal data today with Incogni. And a big thanks to them for supporting the channel. Big garbage. Australia has sovereign borders. Yes, they do. I've totally dealt with it. The Navy will tell you that's an absolute nonsense. No, we couldn't even stop a Russian firing on a British shipping channel the other week. I mean, there's an enormous expense. The busiest shipping lane in the world. And you're talking about sending in the gunboats. Absolute nonsense. You have to choke off supply. I do support the idea of workfare though. And I've said this on this show before, putting people in high viz out, cleaning up graffiti, picking up litter, cleaning out canals. Absolutely a great idea. We should all do that. Nobody's talking about firing on dinghies here. What we're talking about is literally physically creating a barrier. Reform candidates. We had the Sovereign Borders Act in Australia. Tony Abbott dealt with this problem very effectively. Why can't we do the same? Let's talk about this 50K, right? This 50 grand the Bournemouth Council, I think Christchurch and Paul would have decided to give to this charity, who's going to fast track. Now you made an interesting statement a moment ago. You said, oh, it's good that they're being fast tracked. I think it's terrible that anyone would, anyone who's broken into this country or abused the visa system illegally is going to get handed to them a fast track when legal migrants, many highly skilled legal migrants we actually need in Britain, go through some of the most rigorous checks possible. So you're telling them, your message to them, Labour's message is, right, or the Liberal Democrats in this case, whoever's running these councils, moronically, is let's fast track applications to people who've broken into the country and give them special treatment. That's a massive incentive. But you can't have it both ways. Either people are hanging around for months causing trouble and going in HMSAs or they're being deported because they shouldn't be here or being allowed to stay if they should. But if it speeds up the process, I don't know the details of this particular charity, I've no idea, but anything that speeds up the process and gets rid of the backlog is a good thing. It's like British citizenship applications. It's like applying for a visa to go on holiday. It's ridiculous. This is our country, this is citizenship for the greatest country in the world and we're just handing it out on a piece of paper. Yeah, look, why do these migrants choose to leave France, which is a perfectly safe European nation, and desperately try to cross the boats and so on? It's because our welfare system is more generous. It's because of things like 50,000 pounds. Well, I'm glad this organisation's come to light because that's one organisation that won't get a penny from a reform UK government. Yeah, and I think- Well, we'll have more migrants coming, we'll have more people hanging around in hotels then, won't we? They'll be sent straight out. They'll be detained and deported, absolutely. Mass deportations, that's the first thing. It's the only way, Paul. Do you want this country to survive or do you want to carry on allowing mass immigration, legal immigration into our country? And they said no. No, we'll wait and see at the General Election. Let me ask you this, Paul. Andy Burnham has signalled the words HMO Britain. We don't want the country to turn into HMO Britain. What on earth is he going to do differently then? What's his answer? Mass deportations? Is he going to, it seems to me, he is signalling that he's going to get tough. Let's face it. The EU just put forward the most radical changes and basically voted for Rwanda-style schemes to be able to go ahead legally, which will of course have to be challenged in the ECHR, but will probably get passed with the majority of EU MEPs now voting for it. The country's behind. Siobhana Moon's lagging now. Well, it's interesting, the briefing over the weekend is that Siobhana will stay in post as Home Secretary. That's not a shift to the left as we were talking about earlier. She's going to get more right wing, isn't she? She is a hard case in terms of immigration. So what were you going to say? If Andy Burnham says, I want mass deportations of illegal migrants and do not want any more HMOs and we need to crack down on military bases, would you support that? Well, I think the bases have to stay open, otherwise we're going to get back in the hotels and we don't want the hotels in our town centres, do we? And that's one thing the public are really clear on. So, you know, they have to go somewhere, you know, before they're all rounded up and deported under reform, which I think sounds terrifying to me, frankly. How are you going to do that with... I think it's more terrifying that they... Snarling dogs. Oh, come on. I'll put this to you, Louise. Is it going to be like ICE in America? You clearly don't speak to the British people. You clearly don't go out there. I've just stood in a long talk to all the people who are absolutely end of their tether with the failure of both governments to deal with this problem. And the only party that's got any serious agenda to deal with this is reform. They didn't vote for it. If it was up to me, I'd tell you exactly where I would house them. I would house them in prison. If you come to this country illegally. But you know there aren't enough prison spaces, special prisoners, never mind migrants. We house them in military bases. We go on military bases and we build prisons and we build prison capacity. Coming to this country illegally is a crime. Now, if you are a real asylum seeker and you've come legally to this country, fine. There should be a different process. We need to get tougher on this. People are coming to this country because we treat them like gods. We give them money. They need to be processed offshore. They don't come here. If they come here, they get sent out. It's all done somewhere else. That's what we were trying to do with Rwanda. That's what Labour Party stopped. Two years later, the situations got even worse. So, frankly, at the end of the day, the British people, I think, have lost patience and a reformed UK government will tackle this. It's fascinating to me that the European Union have just approved a bill, voted in a landslide, might I say, by at least over 100 MEPs, that they should be allowed to do offshore processing, which is basically where the British government was under Rishi Sunak, albeit very late in the day, but they had arrived at that conclusion. Do you think, Paul, Keir Starmer's first act of removing Rwanda is going to come back to bite the Labour Party? Because if the EU is moving in this direction, the lovey libertarians in the EU, the pro-migrant libertarians in the EU are now moving more right-wing than you guys are. Surely you're missing the public's call here, the call to action. It makes a point, doesn't it, that this is not something uniquely being faced by the UK. And obviously we see it through that prism because we all live here, but the same problem is being faced all over Europe, and particularly those frontline states with the Mediterranean. And there has to be, I think, stronger borders and more action across the whole of the EU, which is what that was all about. Yeah, and Louise, the continent is moving to the right. We're seeing this trend happen everywhere. This, I mean, let's be honest, Andy Burnham's going to be prime minister, isn't he? I mean, the chances of him not being prime minister at this point are very low, right? I love a bit of drama, so if it doesn't happen, I'll be kicking my heels together because I think it would be fantastic to watch it all implode, as you all probably know watching at home. But even the left, Denmark, centre-left government, really, really tough on illegal migration. I think some of the words that have come out of the prime minister of Denmark's mouth would be shocking to left-wingers. However, that's where the European continent's moving. I think it's where more or less everybody in the Western world is moving. Again, with President Trump, who I have opposed for a very long time, but I will give credit where credit is due. He showed a bit of resolve and he secured his borders and he was willing to deport criminals. Some of them weren't criminals, but most of them actually were criminals to El Salvador. And the president of El Salvador, when he rounded up the gangs and put them in prison, guess what? Crime dropped. That's what happens when you take criminals off the streets. And that is what we should be doing. That's what the conservatives will do when Kemi is restored as prime minister. Restored? Restored, yes. I say restore because I think they're going to help that spike reform. We've talked about that quite a lot, haven't we? Kemi is sensible about this and she will bring in change. And on reform's position on this, Andrew, what would you do to, what's your policy agenda on stopping HMO Britain, stopping the illegal migration crisis? So we have to say no to HMOs, but of course it's down to each local council to decide what permissions are given, if it's a license or planning permission. So clearly an HMO can be applied for, but we have a Reform UK council in my borough and I hope they will say no to every HMO. Generally speaking, these are very bad news for local communities, but you need to stop the people coming in that shouldn't be here in the first place. And that's why we need to detain and deport. We need to go back to the third country option. Any processing should be done offshore. If we move to that, that will stop the flow and disincentivize people from coming over. I remember in the ailing days of Rishi Sunak's government before the general election, there were queues of migrants in Calais waiting to find out whether Keir Starmer had won and then they would flood over. That was widely documented by journalists, photograph evidence as well, and because they were worried their Rwanda plan was gonna go ahead. I think that says a lot to me. Right, on the story that 10,000 more asylum seekers are set to be moved into the streets across Britain, a Home Office spokesman said, we do not recognize these figures. We are closing every asylum hotel and moving asylum seekers into basic accommodation, including ex-military sites. This is an important step in ending the perception you can arrive in the UK illegally and be put up in a hotel. We've already seen results. Number of asylum seekers' hotels has fallen by 35% in the last year and by 63% from the peak under the previous government. Overall asylum costs have already fallen by nearly one billion pounds since this government was elected. And GB News has contacted Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council and are yet to receive a copy.