BEN WALLACE has declared that he has “withdrawn” permission for the Home Office to dump asylum-seekers at a disused RAF base in North Yorkshire. 

Plans to accommodate 1,500 men near the remote village of Linton on Ouse now look to be dead in the water after the Defence Secretary told reporters in Huddersfield today that he had told the Home Office “months ago” that the RAF base was no longer available. 

“I have obligations to do something else with that site, and you know there are other sites we made available to the Home Office if it wishes to take it up,” he said. 

The decision marks another blow to Home Secretary Priti Patel’s plans to expand the use of ex-military barracks to accommodate asylum-seekers. 

MPs and campaigners have described the use of such sites, including the notorious Napier Barracks in Folkestone, as “quasi-detention” facilities, accusing the government of inflicting “profound harm” to the people held there. 

Locals in the village, which has a population of just 600, had bitterly opposed the site, raising concerns about strain on local services, the welfare of asylum-seekers and a lack of consultation. 

Fears had also been raised after the arrival of far-right activists in the village, who were accused of intimidating local campaigners. 

Ripon City of Sanctuary, a local refugee charity that has opposed the site, said that reports the plans could have been scrapped is “fantastic news for Linton.” 

The charity’s chair Nicola David told the Morning Star: “It was very unfair on the village and would have been very unfair on anyone placed there.

“We now need to convince the Home Secretary that it still remains the wrong plan that people who come here to seek asylum deserve to be treated as humans not like criminals and to be allowed to integrate into society,” she said. 

Ms David said that the former RAF base, which is surrounded by barbed wire, located near game shooting ranges and just a few feet from two runways, would have been “retraumatising,” for asylum-seekers fleeing conflict and persecution. 

Refugee Action chief executive Tim Naor Hilton said the government must shut down all barracks accommodation immediately.

“Whether in Linton-on-Ouse or Folkestone these high-fenced, barbed-wire barracks shatter people’s mental health, prevent proper integration and are a magnet for the far right,” he warned.

Mr Wallace, who has backed Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for the Tory leadership, revealed the decision when asked about rival Rishi Sunak’s promise to scrap the plans. 

“It was one of, I think, five sites we offered at the time, when Rishi Sunak was in government, and he was certainly supportive of it at the time,” he continued. “He isn’t now, interestingly enough.”

A government spokesperson said: “The government will continue to identify appropriate sites for Greek-style asylum reception centres which will play a key role in reducing the number of asylum seekers in hotels which cost the taxpayer more than £5 million each day.”