Home Office backs down on plan for asylum seekers to sleep four to a room

The Home Office has backed down on plans for asylum seekers to sleep four to a small room in a central London hotel after protests by 40 refugees last week.

The rooms in the hotel in Pimlico, Westminster are small and asylum seekers had previously been sharing two to a room. The Home Office said it wanted to increase the number of asylum seekers sharing one room to save money.

Several asylum seekers told the Guardian there was not enough space to fit four people into one small room, that they had to store their clothes on the little floor space available, and that the claustrophobic conditions were stressful.

According to a letter posted on Twitter on 8 June to Adam Hug, the leader of Westminster council, the immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, said the decision to double the number of asylum seekers in one room was part of a plan to reduce the number of hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers by 90 and would save 250m a year.

Hug and Jenrick have traded accusations on the social media platform about the whose fault the protest was.