It is madness to close down the Bibby Stockholm barge
When academics look back at this disastrous period in our history, there will be a special place for the Bibby Stockholm.
Still languishing off the Dorset coast, the barge that was supposed to accommodate hundreds of illegal migrants is a ghastly monument to government incompetence, representing policy failure on an almost unbelievable scale. Almost, because so much of the Conservative record on immigration beggared belief, and the floating facility, procured at eyewatering public expense, is only the most visible symbol of an approach to illegal immigration that could hardly have been designed to be less effective.
Of course, there have been many more costly and embarrassing government fiascos.
Relative to the Millennium Dome disaster under Blair; or the staggering mishandling of the construction of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood; the amount of taxpayers’ money squandered on the barge is modest (tens, not hundreds, of millions of pounds) but the implications of the abject failure to make it work are far graver for this country than either of those disasters.
The vessel is now synonymous with the loss of control of our borders – and all that this means for national security; crime and policing; and our public services. Along with the now defunct Rwanda scheme, it is hard to imagine a more graphic illustration of a crisis that seems unlikely to do anything other than escalate under Labour.
That Sir Keir Starmer has ditched the Bibby Stockholm is no surprise, when so many in his party are queasy about detaining illegal migrants at all. Sunak and his home secretary proved no match for the weeping refugee charities and human rights lawyers who were so troubled by the unorthodox accommodation, but few of his MPs were had any problem in principle with temporarily housing asylum seekers in such a setting.
After all, the barge has long been good enough for British construction and oil rig workers. Back in 2013, for instance, it was used by Petrofac to accommodate hundreds of workers on a gas plant off Shetland, in the North Sea. If the rooms were a bit rough and ready, those lads and lassies didn’t seem to mind. Indeed, the energy company extended the lease, following “great feedback from guests.”
By contrast, many Left-wingers – including those on Labour’s benches – are fundamentally opposed to any detention of asylum seekers, including Channel migrants. As a result, the Bibby Stockholm initiative, with its wretched recent history of health and safety concerns and inextricable association with Conservative failure, was always certain to be scrapped. The very name of the “floatel” is now so besmirched that the owners of the vessel will likely be forced to re-brand it. For if it is not considered fit for those who purport to be fleeing war and terror, why would anyone less desperate elect to stay on board?
The change of plan is unlikely to make any difference whatsoever to the wider challenge of finding somewhere to put them all. Every additional boatload of migrants exacerbates this housing headache. In the last three weeks alone, since Starmer became prime minister, some 2000 more have crossed the Channel, each and every one of whom must be found a bed. The barge was only ever designed for a few hundred temporary occupants – a drop in the ocean relative to the overall problem.
Doubtless the civil servants who never bought into the project and presided over the shambles will also be delighted to have it out of their hair.
The point was always to send out a clear message to would-be migrants that they should not expect to be put up in luxury hotels. That was vital, not only as part of establishing a deterrent, but also to placate furious taxpayers.
As Labour seeks to draw a line under the whole sorry saga, the question is whether they have any better ideas. If not, the only message that will go out to those hanging around Calais waiting for a dinghy is that Keir Starmer and his team are just as useless as the last lot.