The government is cracking down on hotel rooms for asylum seekers as part of its ‘stop the boats’ mission. Hotel bookings are one of the things most likely to infuriate voters across the political spectrum, whether it’s those who are annoyed that wedding venues are housing migrants, or those upset that vulnerable new arrivals to this country are stuck in inappropriate temporary accommodation. The problem is that, as on every aspect of trying to stop the boats, ministers really don’t have as much power as they’d like. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick announced the latest crackdown in the Commons this afternoon, saying the Home Office has written to local authorities and MPs to inform them that ‘we will now be exiting the first asylum hotels’ with contracts ending by January, and more tranches to follow ‘shortly’. The first tranche, though, contains just 50 hotels. That is not, as Labour very quickly observed, that many. Stephen Kinnock told MPs: ‘It beggars belief that the Minister has the brass neck to come here today to announce, not that the government have cut the number of hotels being used, but that they simply plan to do so – and by a paltry 12 per cent. Is that really it? Is it really their ambition that there will still be 350 asylum hotels in use at the end of the winter, despite promises last year that they would end hotel use this year?’