Eamonn Holmes despairs at 'billions wasted' in migrant hotel tirade: 'It makes me depressed!'

WATCH NOW: Eamonn Holmes hits out as 'billions of pounds' is 'wasted' on migrant hotels

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GB NEWS

Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 27/10/2025

- 08:01

The review concluded there was a 'manifest failure' by the Home Office to 'get a grip' of contracts made with the private firms tasked with housing asylum seekers

Eamonn Holmes has hit out at "billions of pounds" being "wasted" on migrant hotels, admitting he is "depressed" at the current state of play in Britain.

Discussing a new report on the Home Office's handling of the migrant crisis, the GB News host said he "despairs" at how Britain is "going down the tubes".


The latest review into the Home Office concluded there was a "manifest failure" by the Home Office to "get a grip" of contracts made with the private firms tasked with housing asylum seekers.

The report added: "The Home Office has undoubtedly been operating in an extremely challenging environment but its chaotic response has demonstrated that it has not been up to the challenge."

Eamonn Holmes

Eamonn Holmes has hit out at the soaring cost of asylum hotels, declaring it 'makes him depressed'

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GB NEWS

Delivering his verdict on the findings, Eamonn stated: "You just you couldn't make this up. Honestly, I despair at the way this country is run and we're going down the tubes.

"It makes me more depressed than the clock situation [clocks going back], I have to say. Billions of pounds wasted on hotels for migrants."

Agreeing with Eamonn, journalist James Rampton added: "Absolutely, I share your incandescent rage about it.

"It's just extraordinary. Over the past ten years, the costs have gone up from £4.5billion to £15.3billion."

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A protest calling for the closure of the Bell HotelMany locals are concerned about what asylum hotels mean for their own safety | GETTY

Eamonn interjected, fuming: "And not a word about it, not a word. Nobody's warning us that this has happened!"

Mr Rampton continued: "I remember John Reid, when he was one of Tony Blair's many home secretaries, when he became Home Secretary, he said the Home Office wasn't fit for purpose. And it seems two decades later, nothing has changed.

"The Government's failures on immigration are simply symbolic of the disastrous time that they're having. We may talk about Hadush Kebatu, who bizarrely and totally inexplicably was waved goodbye on Friday by HMP Chelmsford, but these sort of calamities keep afflicting the Government. And you think, what else can happen?"

Eamonn responded: "I'll tell you what else can happen, your man gets released out of prison, and David Lammy acts all tough and says we were going to have an investigation and inquiry, well he won't have an inquiry about other things, but he'll have an inquiry at the drop of a hat on this.

Eamonn Holmes

James Rampton told GB News that the Government's 'failures on immigration' are 'symbolic of the disastrous time that they're having'

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GB NEWS

"And then the prisons go 'oh, no, nothing to do with us, we don't want to be looked into and examined because this could cost us 45 minutes more processing a prisoner out of jail'."

In a statement, a spokesman for the Home Office said: "The Government is furious about the number of illegal migrant in this country and in hotels.

"That is why we will close every single asylum hotel - saving the taxpayer billions of pounds.

"We have already taken action - closing hotels, slashing asylum costs by nearly £1billion and exploring the use of military bases and disused properties."

Hitting back at the statement, Eamonn fumed: "So who's going to have their local military base transformed? This is all nonsense. All these statements, they mean absolutely nothing."

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