GB News viewers were left fuming as anchor Patrick Christys and The Critic journalist Tom Jones discussed the “holiday camp” conditions at a facility housing illegal migrants. RAF Wethersfield, in Essex, is currently housing single adult male asylum seekers aged 18-65. It was first repurposed as migrant housing under the Conservative government in 2023.
Comparisons to Butlins
Reform UK’s Peter Harris previously compared facilities to a “holiday camp” – and Jones agreed that it was “like Butlins”. He said on GB News: “This is Butlins, basically, except you get paid to be there. It’s absolutely crazy. Gyms, fitness rooms, table tennis, pool tables, snack bars, loads of TVs. A sports hall for five-a-side football, basketball, cricket…
“You showed a picture of the gym just before the break – that’s got techno-gym equipment. That’s the same equipment that’s in the gym that I pay for on top of my taxes that pay for the gym for these people! This is absolutely insane. Another day, another fresh horror in Britain’s immigration system.”
Funding and local impact
Christys agreed: “Absolutely astonishing. Although actually – is it? The amount of money that we seem able to find on the same day The Times newspaper is leading with the story about how Andy Burnham says he’s going to be realistic about tax increases.
“We’re dishing out another £13billion in foreign aid and we are basically creating a David Lloyd gym-inspired Butlins for illegal immigrants, who do not even have to stay there! They can take one of 17 free buses into the surrounding area!”
Jones added: “That’s one of the interesting things about this. Colchester and Yeovil are two of the towns mentioned, and they’re basically ghost towns before 10pm because people are avoiding these migrants. They don’t want to go into the towns that they live in.
“If you think Britain’s high streets are in a crisis now, wait until this is rolled out across provincial England. It’s going to absolutely decimate these businesses.
“On top of this, the thing we haven’t mentioned – an NHS facility on-site! Unbelievable.”
Local reaction
Migrants in the facility are not detained, but are asked to follow a voluntary curfew of 10pm.
Local pub landlady Jacqui Braithwaite told the BBC, however, that the camp “doesn’t make any difference” to the area, saying: “Other than the racism it's brought out of people.
“We have had some really unpleasant, far-right people come to the village and be really unpleasant. Really nasty, horrible people. I am far more scared of the far-right coming here to protest than from any of the asylum seekers.”
