Even Jacob Rees-Mogg would have to acknowledge the rather absurd scene he was part of. Sporting his signature double-breasted suit, he leaned over a boundary wall to address a group of puzzled foreign individuals in the distance. ‘Hello,’ he called out, ‘is this an area for illegal migrants?’

Although the footage, which has amassed over 500,000 views on YouTube, could be seen as somewhat comedic featuring the Tory figure, the topic itself is far from amusing for many.

Initially aired on his GB News show, State Of The Nation, Rees-Mogg visited Winford Manor—formerly a hotel in an isolated region of north Somerset, now repurposed to house an unspecified number of asylum seekers.

In the broadcast, Rees-Mogg frequently informs viewers that the site is ‘in the middle of nowhere.’ This location, he suggests, might be ‘an ideal spot to conceal illegal migrants.’ It could also clarify how Winford Manor’s function as an asylum facility eluded national attention for almost three years.

Following the viral spread of clips showing Rees-Mogg trying to engage a security guard while peering into the premises, this picturesque section of the West Country has become the latest center of focus in the ongoing discussion about the UK’s dysfunctional asylum system.

It comes after a torrid summer in which race and asylum have been seldom out of the headlines.

Controversy flared up after officials in Birmingham and east London decided to take down flags, which were part of the nationalistic initiative Operation Raise The Colours, from street lamps.

In the borough of Tower Hamlets, there was the once unthinkable sight of council workers using extendable poles to cut down Union Jack and St George’s Cross flags.

Meanwhile, there have been demonstrations outside migrant accommodation sites across Britain. The most high-profile protests were organised by a group of concerned mothers outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, which had been housing an Ethiopian asylum seeker charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl – charges he denies.

Last week, the Court of Appeal famously overturned an earlier ruling that would have forced all 138 asylum seekers out of the hotel by September 12.

Nobody is suggesting, as far as the Mail is aware, that the community around Winford Manor has been hit by a crimewave since the migrants moved in. Nor are there any rumblings about organising protests outside the hotel – or at least not yet.

But there is a climate of fear and growing concerns over who exactly is living on the far side of those padlocked gates. 

‘I’ve seriously thought about packing up, abandoning this place and renting somewhere else,’ businessman Tony Gould – who has two children under the age of ten and lives directly behind the hotel – tells the Daily Mail.

Situated eight miles south of Bristol city centre and three-quarters of a mile from the village it is named after, Winford Manor – set in 7.5 acres of landscaped gardens – dates back to the 1600s.

 It was used as a religious retreat for several years until 2008 when it was converted into a hotel with underfloor heating, state-of-the-art bathrooms with mist-free mirrors, individual thermostats and flatscreen televisions.

At one point, it received the UK’s Green Tourism Gold Award.

Things changed in September 2022, when residents were told that the hotel was going to cease normal operations and become a holding centre for migrants.

According to the minutes of that month’s meeting of Winford Parish Council, concerns were already being expressed about the ‘lack of any consultation with local people’. The previous year’s census recorded the wider Winford area as having a population of 2,331 – fewer than 40 of whom were non-white.

But the community was assured that the contract with the Home Office was only for two years and that life would resume as normal afterwards. Yet as the third anniversary of the migrants’ arrival approaches, there is still no sign of them departing.

It is, according to locals, the absence of clarity about who is living on their doorstep that troubles them.

Details have been sketchy all along – what little they do know comes almost entirely from an information sheet drawn up by the parish council ‘in the absence of official responses’ from the Home Office and other parties.

Among the details given is that the number of occupants housed at any one time ‘varies’, but that 36 bedrooms are ‘given over to accommodate asylum seekers’. Their countries of origin include Syria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somaliland and Georgia.

The document also states that the number of single people and families ‘varies’ from time to time, although Winford Parish Council member John Gallagher says: ‘I’ve been told the families have gone from the hotel now and it’s just men.’

Picking up his earlier theme, Mr Gould – who buys and sells commercial catering equipment – says: ‘I really would move from here due to concerns about my family’s safety, even though this has been home for years.’

While the 66-year-old admits he has never felt personally threatened and that any danger could as easily come from ‘white people or non-immigrants’, he says: ‘I feel that these individuals just don’t have the same boundaries as we do when it comes to other people’s property.

‘One guy came in here and just sat cross-legged on the grass scrolling through his phone. Another fella emerged from the undergrowth over there on another occasion. I have no idea what he was doing, other than perhaps going to the toilet.’

Mr Gould continues: ‘I constantly get taxis calling here [carrying migrants], practically every day still. There was one man turned up about a year ago, but he turned out to be working as an interpreter. 

He was making £160 an hour and said he’d never had it so good. I saw a John Lewis van going into the hotel within the last couple of months. Meanwhile, I’ve had to pay to install security cameras. But the authorities still want their taxes and their rates.’

Mr Gould’s partner Carly Gibbs, 38 – mum of his son Jake, nine, and daughter Sophie, four – says: ‘I think the fact that we weren’t even sent a letter [about the hotel] is disgusting. It shows absolutely no regard for the safeguarding of our children.

‘By the time we even knew about it, the migrants had already moved in.

‘So far, touch wood, there’s never been anything really bad happen. But that is what you live in fear of because you see what happens with these people… and the things they do to girls and women – and that is what you have the fear of every day, that you’ve just been lucky that day.

‘I used to go out jogging and bring the dogs or, when my baby was little, go out with the pram. When they [the migrants] moved in… you think I shouldn’t have to stop so I’ll carry on, but then you have to weigh up the risk. The risk is if something does happen and no one’s around because it’s a remote area, there’s no CCTV, there’s barely any houses – is it worth that risk? It just isn’t to me, so I don’t do it.’

Another local, who preferred not to be named, says: ‘Without wanting to be too blunt about it, this is a quintessentially English area. Nobody disputes that there need to be places to put asylum seekers, but this simply isn’t one of them.’

Even locals who have no issue with Winford Manor acknowledge concerns surrounding the migrants’ identities.

‘They haven’t caused me any trouble, so I don’t have a problem,’ says Kevin McGovern, who lives adjacent to the hotel. ‘No one knows who they are, though.’

Another householder says: ‘When I pass them on the road, some will raise their hand to wave hello and others won’t. But the problem is we don’t know who they are, why they came here and what – if anything – they’ve done before they arrived.’

But not everyone is disturbed by the migrants’ presence. One resident living near the entrance to the hotel remarks: ‘I don’t see what the fuss is all about. They’ve been there for the past three years, so why the big deal all of a sudden?’

Among those helping the migrants is Refugees Welcome North Somerset (RWNS), a charity which ‘offers friendship and support to refugees, asylum seekers and other displaced people’ in the area. The group, which holds weekly sessions to ‘address support needs’, declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Mail.

Avon and Somerset Police said it had received no reports from locals over the past six months ‘about any offences linked to residents of Winford Manor’. Reports of five public order incidents at the hotel were logged over that period. North Somerset Council declined to comment.

A government spokesman said last night: ‘This Government inherited a broken asylum and immigration system.

‘We are taking practical steps to turn that chaos around – including doubling asylum decision making to clear the backlog left by the previous government and reducing the number of people in hotels by 6,000 in the first half of 2025.’

What can’t be denied is that Mr Rees-Mogg has certainly put a place that was once in ‘the middle of nowhere’ firmly at the centre of a heated national debate.

• Additional reporting: JAMES ORR