Ministers want to house migrants in tents on disused airfields — but are blocked by officials over EU rules breach

MINISTERS want to house migrants in tents on disused airfields and cruise ships — but are being blocked by officials claiming it would breach EU rules.

The furious dust-up comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak feels the heat after the UK ­asylum backlog topped 160,000 for the first time in history.

Last night a Westminster source said: “The Blob strikes again.”

UK taxpayers fork out a massive £6.8MILLION A DAY to house asylum seekers in hotels.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her deputies have drawn up a radical plan to slash the eye-watering bill.

She wants to move asylum seekers into giant marquees where they would be given beds and their own personal space via partitions.

Others would be moved onto cruise ships.

A source said the aim is to “house people in accommodation which is not a draw for people coming to the UK — and is cheaper for the ­taxpayer”.

But The Sun on Sunday can reveal that moaning civil servants in the Housing Department and ­Ministry of Defence are trying to kibosh the plan.

They claim it would breach EU rules — known as directive 2013/9/EC — which sets high standards of accommodation that asylum seekers must be housed in.

Tory MP Tom Hunt fumed: “We are not in the EU, so I don’t know why unelected civil servants are trying to stop this by pointing to EU rules. This is not the first time unelected officials have tried to frustrate the work of an elected government. We need to move these people out of hotels and into cheaper accommodation as quickly as possible.”

The row exploded as Rishi Sunak and his inner circle put the final touches to his long-awaited Bill to “stop the boats”.

It is expected within weeks.

Writing in today’s Sun on Sunday, Tory deputy chair Lee Anderson admits the Government must “pull our finger out” and solve the migrant crisis to stay in power.

He says the public have had enough of the small boats crisis and action is urgently needed.

He writes: “If we want to win the next election and keep Slippery Starmer out of Downing Street, we’re going to have to pull our ­finger out.

“The British people are demanding action. They are sick to the back teeth of economic migrants masquerading as refugees pouring into Britain on small boats.

“That’s why we’ve made stopping the boats and tackling the scourge of illegal migration one of our top priorities.”

A Government spokesman said: “We have always been up front about the unprecedented pressure being put on our asylum system, brought about by a significant increase in dangerous and illegal journeys into the country.

“We continue to work across Government and with local authorities to look at a range of accommodation options — but the best way to relieve these pressures is to stop the boats in the first place.

“That is why we are focused on doing everything we can to break the business model of people smugglers who are exploiting vulnerable people for profit.”