Home Office spent more than £6,000 on pizza in one month to feed migrants arriving in UK

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Ramsgate, Kent, by Border Force officers, following a small boat incident in the Channel. Credit: PA Images

The Home Office spent thousands of pounds in one month on Domino's pizzas to feed migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the Channel from France, figures show.

Hundreds of pizzas were bought from the Dover branch of the fast food chain in July, according to analysis of the government department's spending by the PA news agency.

A disclosure log for Home Office procurement card transactions costing more than £500 for the four-week period contained five separate entries from UK Immigration Enforcement for such food orders, totalling £6,757.52.The takeaways were provided while migrants were at Tug Haven - a short-term holding facility in Dover where they are first taken from the beach or sea.

The most expensive entry - £1,824 - said: "This was an urgent need to feed a large number of migrants that had been on the Tug Haven compound in Dover for over 12 hours, and were likely to stay over 24 hours due to issues blocking their movement with resources and the Irc (immigration removal centre) estate."

An entry for £1,789 said: "Purchased by Clandestine Operational Response Team (Cort) for use at Tug Haven where we have migrants arriving on small boats. Due to the high number of migrants arriving and the length of time they had not eaten, it was agreed to purchase 200 pizzas."

Three other Domino's pizza entries - for £1,274.25, £1,000 and £870.27 - werelisted as "hot food for migrants who had to stay overnight at Tug Haven".

Neither the dates the purchases were made, nor the total number of pizzas bought, are disclosed and no further details are provided in the documents.

Staff at the Domino's branch said they could not discuss the matter when contacted by PA.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are committed to delivering the best value for money for the British taxpayer. We ensure all spending is carefully scrutinised to make sure that every pound of taxpayers' money is spent in the most effective way."