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Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the Governments migrant camp plans for RAF Scampton will ruin the legacy of the Dambusters.

The Labour leader said it was completely wrong to turn the disused military base in Lincolnshire - the wartime base for the Dambusters and former home of the Red Arrows - into a camp for up to 1,700 asylum seekers.

He has joined Sir Edward Leigh, the local MP, and the council and leading historians in opposing the scheme.

They claim it will scupper 300 million plans to preserve the bases historic runway as an operational aviation and aerospace hub, as well as a new national heritage site.

Speaking during a visit to Scunthorpe, Sir Keir said: I think the Government is completely wrong to press ahead with the plan to put 2,000 asylum seekers at Scampton.

It will cut across, drive a coach and horses through a really important initiative for investment, for jobs, of tech jobs, in an area that desperately needs them.

The idea of cutting through all that is wrong in principle. Thats why so many local people are so concerned about it, because they can glimpse the future there and the Government is about to take it away from them.

It is also likely to ruin the legacy of the Dambusters. You know, this is an iconic site.

So, the Government is wrong, completely wrong. They should reverse their decision. Im not surprised at the level and scale of local opposition to what is a completely wrong decision by the Government.

I dont think theyve even been there to scope out what this would do and the impact it would have on local communities.

On Wednesday, 437 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats - the highest number on a single day so far this year, the Home Office said.

The previous high for this year was 321 people, on January 25.

The cumulative number of crossings this year stands at a provisional total of 4,431. Total crossings in 2022 were 45,755.

Ten boats were detected on Wednesday, suggesting that an average of 44 people crossed the Channel per vessel.

RAF Scampton is one of five sites identified by the Home Office to house asylum seekers. These include the former RAF Wethersfield base in Braintree, Essex, the Catterick Garrison barracks in Rishi Sunaks north Yorkshire constituency, the former Northeye prison in Bexhill and a barge in Dorset.

The Dambusters, or 617 squadron, was formed at RAF Scampton, from where 19 Lancaster bombers departed for the 1943 raid to destroy three dams in the Ruhr valley in Germanys industrial heartlands, with bouncing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis, an engineer.

West Lindsey district council has negotiated a 300 million deal with development partner Scampton Holdings Ltd to turn RAF Scampton into a centre of aerospace technology and create 1,000 jobs while preserving its rich heritage.

The council has begun legal proceedings against the Home Office in an attempt to block the plan on the basis that they are breaching planning rules.

It argues that because the Home Office is proposing development of the site for longer than 12 months, it should seek full planning approval.

Forty of Britains leading historians - including Sir Antony Beevor, Sir Max Hastings and Dan Snow - signed an open letter, saying that to erase Scamptons heritage, rather than preserve, protect and enhance it further, would be a scandalous desecration of immeasurable recklessness.

The Home Office maintains that the sites are needed to tackle the migrant crisis, which has seen 51,000 asylum seekers housed in hotels at a cost of more than 6 million.

It says the alternative, rudimentary cheaper accommodation will also act as a deterrent to migrants seeking to cross the Channel to reach the UK.

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Sir Keir Starmer: Migrant camp will 'ruin legacy of the Dambusters' - The Telegraph