In the heart of Canary Wharf, a district built as a monument to British enterprise and financial power, stands the Britannia International Hotel. With its glass-fronted façade and waterfront views, it is officially rated as a 4-star establishment. But this is not a story about luxury tourism. This is the story of how the Labour government is forcing you, the British taxpayer, to fund an almost £12 million-a-year contract to house migrants in a hotel that most hardworking families could never afford.
The Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf is the perfect, infuriating symbol of everything wrong with this government’s open-door immigration policy. It represents a toxic combination of staggering financial waste, contempt for the British public, and a reward system for corporate failure, all wrapped up in a package of official deceit. While the left-wing media and out-of-touch politicians try to distract and divide, the facts of this deal expose a government that is radically opposed to the interests of its own people. It is this kind of outrageous policy that is fuelling a great mandate shift across the country.
Dining hall at the Britannia hotel
Paying a Premium for National Insult
The Labour government and its apologists will point to the hotel’s official “4-star” rating as supposed evidence of their compassion, but this is a deliberate smokescreen. Let’s be clear about the luxury your taxes are paying for: a hotel boasting waterfront views of the London skyline, multiple restaurants, and a private health club complete with a swimming pool, sauna, and jacuzzi.
This is the reality of Labour’s priorities. They have signed a contract to pay an eye-watering £81 per person, per night, for over 400 beds in this hotel. This isn’t compassion; it’s a multi-million-pound insult to the British people. It is a back-room deal that funnels vast sums of public money to provide luxury accommodation for illegal migrants, a level of comfort that is out of reach for the very taxpayers footing the bill. As one local charity worker noted, the working people she helps at a food bank “still can’t afford to come in here for one night, for an anniversary, for a birthday”. This is a testament to the sheer incompetence and warped priorities of a government that forces its own citizens to subsidise a lifestyle they themselves can only dream of.
The Staggering Cost of Incompetence
Let’s be clear about the numbers, because the scale of this waste is breathtaking. The contract for the Britannia Hotel alone will cost the taxpayer almost £12 million every single year. This is just one hotel. Nationally, the bill for housing asylum seekers in hotels stands at a ruinous £5-9 million per day.
This isn’t a temporary fix. The National Audit Office has warned that the government’s ten-year asylum accommodation contracts, originally budgeted at £4.5 billion, are now forecast to cost the British public an unbelievable £15.3 billion. This is the price of Labour’s failure. While they dither and delay, refusing to implement the strong border policies our country desperately needs, the bill just keeps rising. Every pound wasted on these hotels is a pound not spent on our NHS, our schools, or our police.
The insult is made worse by the direct cost to British citizens. To make way for the lucrative government contract, the Britannia Hotel has been summarily cancelling fully-paid holidays for law-abiding tourists, often with less than 24 hours’ notice. One furious customer reported having their booking for two rooms cancelled via a brief phone call, leaving them with non-refundable theatre tickets and forcing them to find a more expensive alternative at the last minute. To add insult to injury, there are credible reports that the hotel’s British staff were handed redundancy letters to make way for the new arrangement. Under this government, British workers are fired and British families have their holidays ruined, all so the taxpayer can fund rooms in a failing hotel for illegal migrants. It is a policy of putting Britain last.
The ‘Asylum King’ Profiting from Failure
So, who is getting rich from this disaster? The primary beneficiary is the hotel’s reclusive owner, Alex Langsam, a man the press has dubbed the “Asylum King”. His company’s financial records tell a story of stunning hypocrisy. For years, Britannia Hotels was a struggling, mediocre business. Then, in the year it was first reported to be housing asylum seekers for the government, its profits exploded by an incredible 441%.
This government contract is a lifeline for a failing company, transforming it into a cash machine that has posted profits of over £30 million in recent years. The government is actively rewarding failure, creating an asylum-industrial complex where private companies have a multi-billion-pound incentive to keep the crisis going. The most galling part? Mr. Langsam, the man whose empire is kept afloat by the British taxpayer, is reportedly a non-domiciled UK resident, registered as living in Austria for tax purposes. He profits from a system funded by you, while allegedly minimising his own contribution to the pot.
It is no wonder that news of this scandalous deal has already sparked protests outside the hotel. Ordinary people are disgusted, and they are right to be. The Britannia Hotel is more than just a building; it is a symbol of a government that is fiscally incontinent, morally bankrupt, and profoundly disconnected from the people it is supposed to serve. The country is crying out for change, for a return to common sense and for a government that puts the interests of the British people first. That is the mandate shift we need.
