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More than 1,000 asylum seekers have been earmarked to be moved into the former RAF military base

The leader of Norfolk County Council has hit out at the Government over plans to move 1,250 asylum seekers into their local ex-RAF base.

Speaking to GB News, David Bick declared the move "totally unacceptable" as he joined furious locals in protest outside RAF Barnham.

In a bid to move asylum seekers out of costly hotels, Labour is earmarking ex-military bases across the country to move the migrants into.

As well as a former base in Piddington, Oxfordshire, the base in Suffolk has also been earmarked to welcome more than 1,000 men aged between 18 and 65.

Expressing his outrage at the decision, Mr Bick told GB News his main concern is the safety of those in the local town of Thetford, just two miles from the base.

He said: "Less than a mile up the way, Thetford starts, which is in Norfolk, and to be straight, it's more likely to be Thetford threatened first by these illegal immigrants than anybody else round about.

Pushing back on GB News reporter Jack Carson's point that the Government would say the asylum seekers "have got to go somewhere", the council leader argued that they "shouldn't be in the country in the first place".

He told GB News: "They say they've got to put them somewhere, but they shouldn't be in this country in the first place. And let's be clear what they are, we've got some of this as a Home Office admission.

"Firstly, the illegal immigrants, and we're not talking mothers and children, we're talking about military-aged men exclusively, we've had the Home Office admit they're coming from countries like Eritrea and Iran, so they should not be here in the first place.

"The Government's responsibility is to remove these illegal immigrants and send them back. They're not proper refugees in the true sense of the word, they simply shouldn't be here."

Mr Bick made clear that successive Governments have "created this problem" of illegal migration.

He said: "Whether it's the last Conservative Government or the current Labour Government, putting them so close to a tight-knit community, close to schools, is totally unacceptable."

Asked whether the Home Office's pledge that the base will have "security and CCTV" on site, Mr Bick declared that any measures will make "no bit of difference" to people's concerns.

He argued: "It provides virtually no comfort at all. The reality is that these illegal immigrants will be allowed to roam, and even when they're not allowed to roam, they get bussed into towns.

"I've seen it with my own eyes in various towns in Norfolk, so having CCTV here isn't going to make a bit of difference to the security of Thetford."

In a statement, a Home Office spokesperson said: "We're closing every asylum hotel and moving asylum seekers into basic accommodation, including these ex-military sites.

"This is an important step in ending the perception you can arrive illegally and be put up in a hotel.

"The population of asylum seekers in hotels has fallen by 35 per cent in the last year, and by 63 per cent from the peak under the previous government.

"Overall asylum costs have already fallen by nearly £1billion since this Government was elected."