THE Bibby Stockholm could be “confined to the dustbin of history,” Portland Mayor Caroline Parks said as she prepares to take Home Secretary Suella Braverman to court over a failure to obtain planning permission.

The vessel was to be used as accommodation for asylum-seekers, despite health and safety warnings, but was delayed after Legionella bacteria was discovered in the water supply in August — only days after 39 asylum-seekers had moved in.

Ms Parks told the Stand Up to Racism fringe meeting at the Labour conference that she spoke to some of the men who were “incarcerated” on the vessel and they described it “as like being in a prison.” Some of the men who had been in prison in Iraq got flashbacks.