Arson probe after council leader claims asylum hotel won’t house women and children

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Cambridgeshire Police confirmed today that a fire which “severely damaged” an unoccupied single-storey building in the village of Leverington on Wednesday was being treated as arson.

Fenland District Council has formally objected to Home Office proposals for the site to provide 26-bed accommodation for women and babies as “not suitable to house and support asylum-seekers.”

Tory council leader Chris Boden said: “I may be accused by some of being cynical, but based on how the Home Office has acted in the past, I have no confidence that, given the chance, government would not end up placing adult men who’ve entered this country illegally into this accommodation.

“I suspect the government’s ‘mothers and babies’ line is there to try to soften us up.”

Following the fire, the authority posted a statement saying that it had “warned the plans were causing tension in the community.”

Stand up to Racism co-convener Sabby Dhalu said: “We strongly condemn this arson attack on a site earmarked to accommodate people seeking asylum. 

“It is a stark illustration of the real-world consequences of the toxic racist campaign against asylum-seekers, which has fuelled the rise of the far right. 

“Until a better system for housing refugees is in place, politicians at both national and local level have a responsibility to manage the situation humanely and responsibly, rather than inflaming tensions and putting vulnerable people at risk.”