Defence procurement minister Luke Pollard struggled to provide direct answers during a GB News interview about the newly approved asylum centre near Piddington, prompting visible frustration from presenter Anne Diamond.
The exchange came after Housing Secretary Angela Rayner approved planning permission for migrants to be housed at the empty Ministry of Defence site in Bicester, despite local villagers threatening to leave the UK over the move.
Questioning over security concerns
On Friday, November 13, presenters Stephen Dixon and Anne Diamond questioned the Labour MP about local residents' concerns. Anne pressed the minister on whether more money should be spent on securing the site.
She asked: "Why not spend a bit more money then on making them secure because even the villagers, and they're only 300-odd of them, agree that it would be a completely different threat, as it were, to them if they knew that that place was secure."
She added: "If they knew that these young men couldn't just wander into the village as they will inevitably do."
Minister's response and growing frustration
Mr Pollard responded: "The conversations that my colleagues have with those communities, because the MoD hands the site over to Home Office and they lead with it, could be engaging the local communities around that, taking onboard mitigations where that's possible."
He added: "Those people that are in the asylum process are not held in detention facilities always; there is the ability for them to access local public services."
Anne then fumed: "It's the fourth time, you've harkened back to the fact you're trying to undo the hotels problem ... but the result is not working for the people of Piddington."
This is a breaking live TV story, and updates will follow as more information becomes available.
