ANOTHER hotel in Carlisle will stop housing asylum seekers, an MP has confirmed.

The Milton Hilltop hotel on London Road will close as accommodation for asylum seekers next year.

A letter from the minister for immigration Robert Jenrick to Carlisle MP John Stevenson has been seen by the News & Star.

It follows the announcement that the Cumbria Park Hotel on Scotland Road will also stop housing asylum seekers with a date set for late January 2024.

Mr Stevenson said the Hilltop hotel closure date will be sometime between 'January and spring' next year.

In the letter, Mr Jenrick said the government would be able to make ‘further exits’ as they continue to make progress in ‘stopping the boats’.

A letter from the Home Office to the Carlisle MP has been sent with the full details of closure date to be included, which Mr Stevenson said would be available later this week.

The Hilltop hotel became a host for asylum seekers early last year.

Throughout its time as accommodation it has received support from local anti-racist and refugee charities, and a first-of-its-kind football team launched and affiliated with the FA.

READ NEXT: 'It was too much for a teenager' - Hilltop hotel refugee's harrowing story

The site has also attracted opposition and a demonstration by right-wing groups. 

Carlisle Against Racism (CAR) was originally founded more than 10 years ago to counter the rise of the British National Party (BNP) and, following a dormant period, remobilised to be part of the counter-demonstration to the anti-refugee march in Carlisle that happened in March this year.

CAR said local people feeling the effects of the cost-of-living crisis were ‘misled’ into blaming refugees and migrants rather than the government.

While the UK Government said repeatedly that alternative sites including military bases are more appropriate accommodation sources for asylum seekers, there are concerns from humanitarian and human rights charities for the welfare of asylum seekers who will be forced to move from the hotels and communities of which they’ve become a part.