Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has demanded food delivery companies to "put their house in order" after exposing swathes of illegal migrants using an app "loophole" to work.
Conducting his own investigation of illegal workers in Britain, Philp uncovered illegal migrants being offered multiple courier account logins online for as little as £40 a week and as much as £100 a week.
Speaking to GB News, Philp said Britain is being "fobbed off" by the app's loophole, and declared the food delivery companies are not "doing enough" to crack down on the practice.
Recalling what he found in his investigation, Philp explained: "I went to an asylum hotel and there was a pen absolutely stuffed full of bikes with panniers on the back for Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat, and the illegal immigrants within, in some cases, just hours of illegally entering our country.
Chris Philp claimed that illegal immigrants are able to obtain account logins for food delivery drivers 'within hours' of arriving in the country
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"They're illegal immigrants coming here by small boat. They're working on platforms like Deliveroo, and the people smugglers are telling these illegal immigrants in France, if they come to the UK, then they can work here easily."
Highlighting how the loophole is another "pull factor" for illegal migrants coming to Britain, Philp added: "It's a pull factor that is attracting illegal immigrants to come from France and Germany into the UK. The Home Office run that hotel and dozens of other hotels like it.
"So the Home Office, Yvette Cooper should be shutting that down. Why is she paying our taxpayer money to accommodate these illegal immigrants in hotels and letting them run illegal working right under the Home Office's nose?"
Calling out the food delivery companies for the lack of action in shutting down operations, Philp told GB News: "Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats are frankly allowing this to happen on their platforms. They claim they do checks, but that is absolute nonsense, as evidenced by the fact that all those illegal immigrants in the hotel are working.
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Chris Philp conducted an investigation into illegal migrants becoming delivery drivers
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"Any checks they're doing, if they are doing any for that matter at all, are clearly not working. They are facilitating and encouraging illegal immigration.
"The Home Office should come down on those companies, Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats like a ton of bricks."
He stated: "Prosecute them, fine them into next week and frankly, if they can personally prosecute the people running those companies as well because they are creating a magnet, a pull factor for illegal immigrants to come to the UK."
Stressing the risk to public safety in allowing illegal workers to operate under different accounts, Philp cautioned: "Imagine a lone woman ordering a Deliveroo maybe to her house or flat late at night, thinking that the delivery driver is known to Deliveroo.
"But because of all this practice of renting out logins, either with or without Deliveroo's knowledge, the person who actually turns up to the door at midnight could be, frankly, absolutely anyone, including an illegal immigrant who only turned up to the country a few days beforehand. So I think it's a safety risk as well."
Philp told GB News that the companies are 'lying' about taking action
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Asked by host Martin Daubney if Britain is being "fobbed off" by these operations, Philp agreed: "We're definitely being fobbed off.
"I wrote to the chief executive of some of these companies after my visit to the asylum hotel, and I got the usual response with all the usual platitudes.
"And when they say they're taking proper action to stop this, they're basically lying. So these companies need to urgently put their house in order. They are fobbing us off."
Dame Angela Eagle, Minister for Border Security and Asylum told GB News: "I welcome Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats' pledge to increase facial verification checks. Following today's roundtable, we will keep a close eye on that progress and continue discussions.
"Now, under our plan for change, we are taking a zero tolerance approach to illegal working across the board, and arrests nationwide have increased by 51 per cent, and we are strengthening legislation via our Borders Bill to end the abuse of flexible working arrangements."
GB News has approached Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat for comment.
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