Weddings booked by Britons at a stunning Victorian country mansion have been cancelled after the Home Office announced it needed the hotel for migrants.
At least three weddings have reportedly been cancelled at the Grade II-listed Stoke Rochford Hall in Lincolnshire:
The historic mansion, run by Countrywide Hotels, was already hosting migrants under what local media describes a “compulsory contract” with the government, and was forced to cancel the planned weddings after being told it was required to take on even more.
“The hotel has received notification from the Home Office that the current government contract is to be extended to take additional families with immediate effect,” said a spokeswoman for the hotel.
“It is with deep regret that three weddings that had planned to use the hotel over the coming months have to be cancelled,” she added.
The hotel said they “appreciate[d] how distressing and upsetting cancelling a wedding is, not only for the bride and groom but for all the guests that have been looking forward to celebrating the union and in many cases have made travel arrangements,” and that “[n]ot only are we offering our sincere apologies, but where possible looking at alternative arrangements and venues and then transferring the weddings plans to the [alternative] venue”– with a “full refund” which will supposedly cover “any additional expenses the couple may have incurred”.
Meanwhile, the expense to British taxpayers of hosting asylum seekers, refugees, and illegal aliens in hotels across the country in ever-increasing numbers, seemingly regardless of who leads Britain’s governing Conservative (Tory) Party, appears to be open-ended.
In February, the cost of hosting migrants in hotels was estimated at £4.7 million a day — £1.71 billion ($2.31 billion) a year — and it is highly likely to have increased in the months since as 2022 has proved to be another record-breaking year for illegal immigration by boat alone.
Further costs, such as access to state schools and healthcare and regular stipends for migrants, take the direct financial burden associated with paying for them well beyond £2 billion a year.