SUELLA BRAVERMAN has confirmed that the government is considering accommodating asylum-seekers on old cruise ships as part of plans to end the use of hotels. 

The Home Secretary said all options for housing asylum-seekers — including on liners previously destined for the scrap heap — were “on the table.” 

Asked by peers today about hosting people on ships, Ms Braverman said the Home Office wanted to “end the use of hotels as quickly as possible,” describing it as an “unacceptable cost to the taxpayer.”

“We will bring forward a range of alternative sites, they will include disused holiday parks, former student halls — I should say we are looking at those sites — I wouldn’t say anything is confirmed yet,” she told the Lords’ justice and home affairs select committee. 

“But we need to bring forward thousands of places, and when you talk about vessels all I can say is — because we are in discussion with a wide variety of providers — that everything is still on the table and nothing is excluded.”

Ms Braverman said the government was due to spend £3.5 billion on the accommodation and support for asylum seekers. 

However Labour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy suggested the sum was so high partially due to profit-making by private firms contracted by the Home Office to run hotels, as she called for a review into the issue. 

“It’s quite shocking that the public purse is paying out to private companies and they are making profit from it,” she said. “Why aren’t you using NGOs, other bodies that aren’t going to be profit-making to provide the sort of support that asylum-seekers need?” 

She added: “It’s an ideological decision not to use local authorities — you know that.”

Responding, Ms Braverman said it was “not realistic” to find a charity able to provide so many beds, adding: “The state does not own an infinite number of bed spaces that can be deployed for this usage.” 

Later in the session, Ms Braverman also suggested that the Home Office has yet to find an airline willing to operate deportation flights to Rwanda.

It comes after Spanish firm Privilege Style, which operated the cancelled flight to the African country in June, pulled out in October following pressure from campaigners.