Keir Starmer has been slapped with a damning verdict by an enraged Crowborough resident as the rural town becomes engulfed in a protest against asylum seeker accommodation.

Last month, it was revealed that Labour intended to house hundreds of asylum seekers in two disused military sites in Inverness and East Sussex while the Home Office’s attempts to stop using hotels.

Consequently, by the end of November, Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough army training camp will be home to 900 men.

As a result, Crowborough residents have flocked to the streets of their rural town to protest the decision on Saturday, brandishing signs emblazoned with slogans such as “stop rewarding, start deporting”.

Other signs say: “Protect our town, protect our communities and protect our families and stop 600 illegal immigrants coming to Crowborough”.

Speaking to National Reporter Jack Carson, protester John said: “I want safety for our community, my wife, all the youngsters and everything. Not to be frightened to go out in the road.

“These people, I understand, don’t have passports. Therefore, why are they here? I have to have a passport to go to other countries. Why have they not got passports?”

He added: “We all fear for our safety, our security. We have sympathy for some of them, but they’re not all who they like us to think they are.”

When Jack asked if John understood Sir Keir’s position on wanting to end the use of asylum hotels and improve the impact on communities and the British taxpayer, the protester simply declared: “He’s a prat.

“He has no idea what’s going on.”

While the Government has now declared that both sites comply with health and safety regulations, the previous Conservative Governments ruled the locations as unsuitable for humans.

Currently, approximately 32,000 asylum-seeking migrants are housed in hotels dotted around the nation.

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The protester further declared that those making the perilous journey across the Channel should be returned to France, “where they came from”.

“They let them in. They brought them over with their navy. We want our navy to protect us,” John added.

While residents have taken to the streets, the East Sussex council has warned that it is considering legal ways to stop the plan to house 600 men at the Crowborough base.

As the site is considered Crown land, the usual powers of council planning regulations were not able to be wielded as a defensive option.

Wealden District Council deputy leader Rachel Millward fumed that she was “absolutely appalled” after local authorities, including the local MP, were failed to be notified of the decision ahead of time.

Ms Millward complained that the news about the town was confirmed by the Home Office without public consultation.

“That was a huge shock and a massive disappointment,” she told the BBC.

After the announcement that the two sites are due to house migrants, a Home Office spokesman said: “We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels.

“This Government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well under way, with more suitable sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs.”

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