Shocking new figures show Labour are still ploughing billions of taxpayers’ cash into a foreign aid budget that is largely used to cover the cost of housing some 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels in the UK. Whitehall data shows the Home Office plans to spend a staggering £2.2 billion of overseas development assistance (ODA) this financial year.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) cash is meant to be directed abroad to help with humanitarian projects in country’s which most need assissatance, but a loophole in international rules means governments can spend the money supporting asylum seekers during their first year of arrival.

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Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party had promised before the General Election to “end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds”, but according to the BBC recent damning new figures showing barely any change in the budget covering asylum hotels were released by the Home Office with no press release in recent days. The £2.2 billion earmarked this year is only marginally less than the £2.3 billion it spent in 2024/25.

Just days ago on June 3, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Home Affairs Committee “we need to end asylum hotels altogether”.

But Whitehall officials told the BBC there is no incentive for the Home Office to cut back on the controversial spending because ODA money comes out of the FCDO budget, and not from Home Office coffers.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the BBC: “Labour promised in their manifesto to end the use of asylum hotels for illegal immigrants. But the truth is there are now thousands more illegal migrants being housed in hotels under Labour.

“Now these documents reveal that Labour are using foreign aid to pay for asylum hotel accommodation – yet another promise broken.”

Gideon Rabinowitz, director of policy at the Bond network of development organisations, said diverting £2.2 billion from the FCDO to cover asylum hotels was “unsustainable”, adding it was “poor value for money” and “comes at the expense of vital development and humanitarian programmes tackling the root causes of poverty, conflict and displacement”.

He said: “It is essential that we support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, but the government should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

A Home Office spokesperson told the BBC: “We inherited an asylum system under exceptional pressure, and continue to take action, restoring order, and reduce costs. This will ultimately reduce the amount of Official Development Assistance spent to support asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.

“We are immediately speeding up decisions and increasing returns so that we can end the use of hotels and save the taxpayer £4bn by 2026.”

Express.co.uk have contacted the Home Office for comment.