A West London council has been accused of failing to protect ethnic minority councillors facing racial abuse through its rhetoric on asylum seekers.
In an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the newly appointed Deputy Leader of opposition group Hillingdon Labour, Councillor Sital Punja, said she and other elected councillors have faced increased racial abuse in recent months, including being called “the P word”.
She claims the Conservative-run council is failing to protect councillors from racial abuse, because of several examples where it’s blamed asylum seekers for increased costs to residents or cuts to local services.
Cllr Punja said: “I have as an ethnic minority councillor had to face racist comments, that are attacked towards me. I’ve totally seen it increase since the council rhetoric has gone up, and the council is putting this through all of its channels.
“There is racism, there is racial comments, and people seem to think it’s okay to attack ethnic minority councillors. For me, I find that unacceptable, because the council’s role is to ensure the safety and protection of its members, its councillors too.”
Councillors told ‘you support illegals’
Cllr Punja’s comments come after a string of examples of Hillingdon Council blaming the costs associated with asylum seekers for its financial problems.
In February, the LDRS revealed that Hillingdon Council is at risk of bankruptcy following years of “overspending and undersaving” – a summary made by its own Chief Financial Officer.
In recent months, the council has said it is having to introduce a range of unpopular measures to balance the books, which it says is due to the costs associated with housing asylum seekers. This included a recent email sent out to residents which drew a link between the introduction of garden waste collection charges and asylum costs.
Hillingdon Council was one of the last boroughs in London to introduce charges for green waste collection, which began on Monday (July 7). Cllr Punja described this email as an attempt to “scapegoat” and “shift blame” for the council’s precarious financial position.
She said: “I find that the use of council media is to propagate or to build out this Conservative line or storyline without having the actualities and the figures. When we ask for figures, we don’t seem to get them.”
Following the news of Hillingdon Council’s financial position, Cllr Punja says there has been an increase in racism towards ethnic minority councillors. She says they even experience it door knocking, with comments such as “you support illegals” and “I don’t vote for p****”.
Cllr Punja said: “We are being told ‘this is our country’, as if I wasn’t born in this country, as if I haven’t paid my taxes in this country. So yeah, I do [feel like this is a direct result of recent council communications].”
In a speech to the Ruislip Residents Association in April, Council Leader Ian Edwards said 80 per cent of people who have been evicted from asylum hotels do not qualify for council support. But he explained around 20 households which include children do qualify for support each month.
He told them: “As a consequence of that [the government speeding up asylum decisions], we are now having around 200 presentations every month from the hotels to the council saying ‘please help me because I have been evicted from the hotel after my asylum decision was made’. It might surprise you, it certainly surprised me, some turn around and say I have been evicted because I have been refused asylum.”
He added: “80 per cent of those we don’t have to worry about, because they are young men, who we don’t have a duty to in terms of housing., but we have to go through the assessment… which costs money, but 20 households every month do require housing.”
A few weeks later, Cllr Steve Tuckwell, in an interview with the BBC, described the number of asylum seekers the borough has to house as “a huge burden” which “comes at a cost to the Hillingdon taxpayer”. Since then, Hillingdon Council has announced it is considering legal action against the government over asylum costs.
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme Director, has described recent communications from Hillingdon Council as an attempt “to blame others”.
He said: “Politics is about responsibility to people, communities and society as a whole, yet too many leaders, both locally and nationally, devote their energy to blaming others instead of accepting accountability for their own decisions and duties.
“People seeking asylum have no more caused Hillingdon Council’s financial problems than they have created the dysfunction, harm and cost of national asylum policy. Fuelling public anxiety and hostility to distract from real accountability has sadly taken firm root in our politics and benefits none of us.”
Hillingdon Council says “council communications are routinely reviewed to ensure impartiality standards are upheld, and the council is satisfied the content is a statement of fact, providing an overview of why the council has made the decision to change the service to make it more sustainable”.
The local authority says the borough houses nearly one in 10 migrants housed in hotels across the country, and that there are currently 3,000 asylum seekers placed into accommodation by the Home Office.
Asylum costs – billed to the council or the government?
Cllr Edwards, Leader of the Council, told the LDRS that residents “have a right to know the facts”. He said: “The government’s own data shows that Hillingdon has an exceptionally high number of asylum seekers housed in hotels in the borough.
“It is fact that under this Labour government the number of asylum seekers entering the country unlawfully has increased to record levels and that more are now being evicted from our hotels than ever before, whilst leaving it to Hillingdon’s residents to fund any future support and accommodation that they might need.
“Our residents have a right to know the facts. We shall see at council on Thursday whether Cllr Punja speaks for the Labour group or whether they will join with Hillingdon Conservatives to seek to recover our costs to date and to stop the government evicting asylum seekers without funding their ongoing support and accommodation.”
According to a Home Office audit report, whilst asylum claims are being processed, the government funds financial support and accommodation. The bill for the current 3,000 asylum seekers in hotels in Hillingdon is covered by the Home Office, not the council.
Once a person’s asylum claim is rejected, there is no automatic statutory duty to house them, however, in some cases in which there are vulnerabilities or children concerned, local authorities are obliged to prevent the child – and therefore the family – from becoming destitute. Those without serious vulnerabilities or children are excluded from housing assistance.
Hillingdon Council said: “An increasing number of asylum seekers are being evicted from Home Office accommodation with the expectation the council will provide, as part of its statutory duties, any necessary and ongoing support, including housing.
“The asylum funding shortfall across all council services is £11.3 million in the five years ending 31 March 2025. The council estimates that asylum related grant funding for 2025/26 will result in a £5 million shortfall and the grant will be exhausted by November, at which point the council will once again be required to use taxpayer funds to support national government policy.”
A spokesperson later added: “The costs associated with people living in hotels while awaiting a decision – both accommodation and subsistence – is paid for by the Home Office. Once the Home Office evicts them, they present to the council seeking support, at which point they become the council’s responsibility.
“The council will carry out age assessments and those underage will become looked after children supported by the council at its own cost. Our officers work with those who have been granted ‘leave to remain’ to assess their eligibility for housing support and will look at housing options available to them and the next steps where they are deemed eligible. Those who require housing assistance will be moved into private rented sector accommodation at the council’s cost.”
Homelessness up 66 per cent in Hillingdon
New figures from the charity Riverside indicate that between 2023/24 and 2024/25, the number of rough sleepers in Hillingdon has increased further than any other London borough. There has been an increase of 196 rough sleepers, which is a 66 per cent increase.
Hillingdon Council say this is due to the Home Office accelerating the processing of asylum claims. The local authority says this means up to 200 ex-asylum seekers per month are then evicted from their accommodation in the borough, with some needing assistance from the council.
A spokesperson said: “The council visits hotels to work with asylum seekers who have been granted leave to remain to look at housing options available to them and the next steps where they are eligible. If they are not deemed eligible, the council will still work with them to make referrals to other organisations and charities that may be able to provide housing support, as well as wider support about preparing to leave Home Office accommodation.
“However, in some cases, despite the support available, asylum seekers may choose not to engage and end up sleeping rough.”
Philip is a Local Democracy Reporter covering Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow, with a focus on council decisions, housing, planning, licensing and community stories across west London.
