What was claimed
A letter from the Home Office to Gloucestershire County Council and Gloucester City Council outlines government plans to requisition a former social club, The Wall’s Club, to be used as a leisure centre for migrants and asylum seekers.
Our verdict
This letter is fake. Both councils, which are listed as recipients, have confirmed they have not received it. And the MP for Gloucester has issued a statement saying it is a “complete fabrication”.
A letter circulating on social media which appears to be from the Home Office informing two local councils in Gloucestershire that a former social club is to be requisitioned to become a leisure centre exclusively for migrants isn’t real.
Posts on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) featuring the letter, apparently from the Home Office and addressed to employees of Gloucester City Council and Gloucestershire County Council, have been shared with captions implying it is a genuine document.
The letter, which includes the logo for the Home Office, says that The Wall’s Club in Barnwood, Gloucester, is to be taken over by the government “in accordance with a wider directive issued under current policy guidance informed by the Labour Party’s strategic framework on the welfare of asylum seekers and migrants”.
It states that the site will be “repurposed to serve as a private sports and leisure facility exclusively for the use of residents currently accommodated at the Ibis facility nearby” and will become operational in the week commencing 12 May.
But this letter is a fake. In a statement on his Facebook page on 30 April, the MP for Gloucester, Alex McIntyre, said it was never sent by the Home Office.
His post said: “I have confirmed with colleagues in the Home Office that this letter is a hoax and a complete fabrication. It has been reported to Meta and will be reported to the police.”
Both Gloucester City Council and Gloucestershire County Council confirmed in statements shared on X the same day that they had not received any such letter from the government regarding the use of the social club, which closed in March 2024 after 60 years.
They said: “We’ve been made aware of a letter claiming to be from the Home Office to Gloucester City and Gloucestershire County Councils. The letter is fake. Neither council has received the letter.”
We have contacted the Home Office about the letter and will update this article if we receive a response.
You can find more of our work fact checking claims relating to immigration on Full Fact’s website, including an explainer looking at what we do (and don’t) know about ‘illegal migrant’ numbers.
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This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because both the councils listed as recipients of the letter, and the local MP, have confirmed the letter is fake.
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