Why do the Tories force asylum seekers to live on welfare?

Over decades of service as a floating hotel, the Bibby Stockholm has accommodated all manner of people. It has housed workers for a Swedish wind farm and for the new Shetland gas plant; homeless people in Hamburg, asylum seekers in Rotterdam. It was briefly considered as a ‘high-end’ barge for students: with 222 en-suite rooms, a restaurant, TV room and gym, it was touted to Irish universities as a floating hall of residence. It makes sense, then, that the government considers the vessel a suitable place to house asylum seekers – given that Britain has so few large residential spaces available.

But the mooring of the Bibby Stockholm in Portland harbour has triggered yet another round of hysterical outrage. Ministers have been accused of ‘gratuitous cruelty’ and taking ‘pleasure from the misery of others’. Lawyers acting for 25 of the asylum seekers have so far prevented them from being put on board the vessel.