Home Secretary Suella Braverman is under ardent pressure to get a grip on the current migrant crisis which is estimated to be costing the taxpayer almost £6million a day to accommodate about 45,000 asylum seekers in hotels. The Home Office has already published details of a £70million contract to house asylum seekers in accommodation centres in an attempt to end hotel use.

One of the options said to be on the table is MDP Wethersfield, a former World War 2 and Cold War RAF base.

But Robert Cameron, who worked on the base in the 1990s for the MoD police, has slammed the plans of using a historic site, said to have played a key role in the Battle of Britain, to house migrants.

Mr Cameron, whose parents also worked at the 325-hectare (800-acre) base in the 1960s and 1970s, said: “Having 1,500 asylum seekers would double, if not triple the traffic in the surrounding quaint Essex villages.

“The infrastructure just is not there.”

In the nearby historic garrison town of Colchester, former servicemen argued that veterans themselves should be given first refusal to any renovated accommodation on the former RAF site.

Brigadier Anthony Cauler told the Daily Express: “If there are [homeless veterans] then obviously Wethersfield would be a good place to put them.”

Another private, who wished not to be named, said many ex-servicemen felt “neglected” by the plans.

He added: “They think more of these people [asylum seekers] than our own people.”

Asked whether he supported the Home Office requisitioning MDP Wethersfield for 1,500 asylum seekers, the private said: “No. Full Stop”.

It comes after it was revealed that hundreds of families were left without heating or hot water as they waited for repairs in rundown military homes before Christmas.

Meanwhile, the latest estimates by the Royal British Legion place homeless veterans numbers at roughly 6,000.

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood said it is “absolutely important” that we house our service personnel in the “highest possible standard,” adding that accommodation was just as important as training and equipment.

The former Army captain added: “Any soldier actually spends more time in the barracks than they do on operations. It’s critical that we improve the standards which sadly have fallen beneath par.”

However, he shared the views of several other Tory MPs that the Daily Express spoke to that the migrant crisis was “separate” to the issue of military housing.

Mr Ellwood said: “There should be specialist housing to place them as they’re processed and there are former military bases that are better suited to this process.”

Campaigners from the Fields Association have written to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace urging him to intervene with the Home Office to prevent any accommodation centre plans from going ahead. 

They echoed the concerns of Mr Dodgeson, arguing the former RAF base is “almost like a detention centre”. 

Beverley Ault, who is the temporary chair of the group told the Daily Express that the conditions on the site are so inhospitable on the site, they border on “inhumane”.

Ms Ault and Tony Clarke-Holland said that the Government’s U-turn on the Linton-on-Ouse asylum seeker accommodation plan gives them hope that similar backtracking will take place.

Last August the Home Office abandoned plans to establish an asylum seeker accommodation centre at an RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse in a rural part of North Yorkshire after mass opposition to the plans.

Sources that are said to be employed on the Wethersfield base, have told the campaigning group that the Home Office plans to use the site to process asylum seekers before they are deported to a third country, under the Government’s new illegal migration legislation launched today.

The north Essex base has been managed by British and US forces at various times during and since World War 2. The Fields Association say that RAF planes used the airstrip during the Battle of Britain.

A Home Office spokesperson said:  “We have always been upfront about the unprecedented pressure being put on our asylum system, brought about by a significant increase in dangerous and illegal journeys into the country.  

“We continue to work across government and with local authorities to look at a range of accommodation options and sites but the best way to relieve these pressures is to stop the boats in the first place. 

“That is why we are introducing legislation which will ensure that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and swiftly removed to another country.”

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