This roundup of claims has been compiled by Full Fact, the UK’s largest fact checking charity working to find, expose and counter the harms of bad information.
In recent days we have seen lots of claims about how the number of asylum hotels has changed under Labour, many of which have been inaccurate or misleading.
Some reports and claims on social media have suggested that the number of asylum hotels has “halved” under Labour, which is not correct.
And Labour politicians have repeatedly claimed that the number of asylum hotels has been brought down from about 400 at its peak under the previous government to about 200 now.
While these figures are broadly accurate, this claim is potentially misleading because it fails to make clear that almost all of this reduction took place under the Conservatives, not Labour.
Closures under Labour
The Home Office’s annual report for 2024/25 said that the number of hotels in use to accommodate asylum seekers peaked at “over 400 in summer 2023”.
By the time Labour came into government in July 2024 there were 213 hotels in use, according to a response to a written parliamentary question provided by border security minister Dame Angela Eagle MP in March 2025.
And the Home Office confirmed to Full Fact last month that as of July 2025 210 hotels were in use.
So while it is true that the number of hotels in use has decreased by about 200 since it peaked at more than 400 two years ago, in its first year in office Labour actually reduced the number of hotels by a net of three.
The Government does not routinely publish information on the number of hotels being used as contingency accommodation for asylum seekers, so precise figures for the number of hotels in use at specific points in time are not always available.
Claims the number has been ‘halved’
A news bulletin on Wednesday reported that “the Government has promised to end the use of asylum hotels by the next election, and says it’s already halved their number”.
One website reported on Thursday that “the number of hotels used to house asylum seekers has halved in the year since Labour took power”, while another – in a report which has since been corrected after Full Fact got in touch – claimed that the Labour leader of Tamworth borough council, Carol Dean, had “pointed out that under the Labour Government, the use of hotels has halved from 402 to 210, with the aim of stopping the use of any hotels by 2029”.
We have also seen lots of similar claims on social media about Labour having supposedly “halved” the number of asylum hotels.
But as the figures above show, it is not correct to say that the number of hotels has been halved under Labour.
We have also seen the Home Office and Labour politicians repeatedly talk about the reduction in asylum hotel numbers since the peak under the Conservatives, without making it clear under which government most of the reduction occurred.
This appears to be what Ms Dean did when making the comments which were paraphrased in the now-corrected report. She reportedly said: “Nationally Labour came to power just over a year ago. The use of hotels has halved from 402 at their peak to 210 now.”
And on Wednesday Home Office minister Dan Jarvis claimed in a TV interview that “under the previous government there were something like 400 hotels in use – we’ve driven that number down to 200”.
While this version of the claim does not explicitly attribute all of this decrease to Labour, it is potentially misleading because it fails to acknowledge that the vast majority of the closures took place under the previous Government.
We have contacted the Home Office, Ms Dean and a number of outlets for comment.
Full Fact’s Government Tracker is continuing to monitor progress on Labour’s manifesto commitment to end the use of asylum hotels.
