Bibby Stockholm: MP demands safety reports on asylum barge as it nears Dorset dock
A Tory MP has demanded to see safety reports for a barge that the government plans to use to house asylum seekers.
The Bibby Stockholm – which will accommodate 500 people waiting for decisions on their applications – departed from Cornwall today to head to its new dock at Portland Port in Dorset.
But Chris Loder, who represents West Dorset, claimed the figure was double the capacity the barge had been designed to hold.
Mr Loder has called on the home secretary to “stop” the vessel or provide the assessments that show it is “safe to cope with double the weight that it was designed to bear”.
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The government has been seeking out new accommodation for asylum seekers, including those who cross the Channel in small boats, claiming the hotel bill to house them has hit £6m a day.
As well as the barge, it has taken over former military bases, and reports have even suggested large marquees could be used.
But ministers have faced a backlash from local residents, councils and MPs if their areas have been chosen for the new sites.
Previously Richard Drax MP, a Conservative who represents South Dorset (including Portland), threatened the government with legal action over the barge.
Mr Loder, who has also spoken out against the Bibby Stockholm coming to his county, has now put pen to paper, writing to Home Secretary Suella Braverman and transport minister Baroness Vere with his concerns over the safety of the barge.
Dining facilities onboard the Bibby Stockholm
“For months, I have been asking for sight of the safety risk assessments that should have been done to allow the Bibby Stockholm to be used in Portland Harbour with 500 people on board whilst it was designed for 250,” he wrote.
“The Bibby Stockholm has now left Falmouth Dock. But visibility or assurances that adequate safety risk assessments have been completed have not been received.”
The MP also claimed that following a call with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, it was “clear they have also not undertaken that work, which we would typically expect them to do for a flagged vessel on water – which is what the Bibby Stockholm is”.
Mr Loder added: “I am writing to you this evening to ask that you either stop the Bibby Stockholm or that you provide the necessary safety risk assessments that confirm this vessel is safe to cope with double the weight that it was designed to bear.”
There are also bedrooms onboard.
The move of the three-storey vessel is already a month behind schedule, after Ms Braverman told MPs it would be in Portland within a fortnight on 5 June.
The 222-bedroom vessel contains “basic” accommodation, with healthcare provision, catering facilities and 24/7 security, at a reported cost of £20,000 a day, the Home Office said back in May.
Dorset Council has been given £2m in a funding package to meet the cost of providing services to residents.
In a statement in response to Mr Loder’s concerns, the Home Office said: “We can confirm that Bibby Stockholm is now on its way to Portland Port.
“Using vessels as alternative accommodation, like our European neighbours are already doing, will be better value for British taxpayers and more manageable for communities than costly hotels.
“We continue to work extremely closely with local councils and key partners to prepare for arrival of asylum seekers later this month and minimise disruption for local residents including through substantial financial support.”
Aave Labs became one of the first major decentralized finance (DeFi) projects to secure authorization under Europe’s new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, allowing the company to offer regulated stablecoin ramps across the European Economic Area (EEA).
The approval enables “Push,” Aave Labs’ fiat-to-crypto service, to let users convert between euros and crypto assets, including the Aave protocol’s native stablecoin, GHO. The Central Bank of Ireland granted the authorization to Push Virtual Assets Ireland Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aave Labs.
The company selected Ireland for its European operations, signaling that the country is becoming a preferred hub for compliant onchain finance under MiCA. On June 25, the crypto exchange Kraken secured its MiCA authorization in Ireland, allowing it to expand its offerings across Europe.
The move came as global stablecoin supply surpassed $300 billion in 2025, signaling strong demand for fiat-pegged crypto assets. At the time of writing, CoinGecko data showed that the total stablecoin market cap across the crypto sector was at $312 billion.
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Aave’s Push opens regulated access to GHO and other stablecoins
With its MiCA approval secured, Push will offer regulated on and off-ramps to GHO and other stablecoins integrated in Aave’s product suite.
According to Aave’s announcement, the conversion fees are set to zero, which is a competitive rate compared to the typical fee structure across legacy fintech providers and centralized exchanges (CEXs).
While the protocol introduced the product as a “zero-fee” solution, it did not specify whether this fee structure was permanent or tied to an introductory period.
Aave Labs said a compliant payment infrastructure is foundational to developers hoping to onboard mainstream users into DeFi.
By providing a predictable, audited pathway between euros and crypto assets, Push could reduce one of the biggest frictions in DeFi adoption: the dependence on CEXs for fiat-to-crypto conversions.
The ability for a DeFi-native organization to run a compliant fiat bridge represents a meaningful shift as the protocol supports tens of billions in stablecoin liquidity.
According to DefiLlama, Aave processed a volume of $542 million in the last 24 hours alone. The data aggregator also showed that the total value of assets borrowed by users from Aave’s lending pools exceeds $22.8 billion.
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The acting chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the regulatory body overseeing banks in the US, is reportedly considering guidance for tokenized deposit insurance and plans to launch an application process for stablecoins by year’s end.
Acting FDIC Chair Travis Hill, who has made bullish statements about tokenization in the past, told the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Fintech Conference on Thursday that the regulator will eventually release guidance around tokenized deposit insurance, according to reports.
The FDIC protects depositors in the event of a bank failure and insures money in accounts at banks that are insured by the regulator.
“My view for a long time has been that a deposit is a deposit. Moving a deposit from a traditional-finance world to a blockchain or distributed-ledger world shouldn’t change the legal nature of it,” Hill said, as reported by Bloomberg.
Strong interest in tokenization
Regulators and Wall Street have shown serious interest in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector this year.
Excluding stablecoins, the total value of tokenized real-world assets surpassed $24 billion in the first half of the year, with private credit and US Treasurys making up the bulk of the market, according to a report by RedStone.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is one of the most prominent players in the space and launched a tokenized money market fund called BUIDL in 2024.
Stablecoin application regime by the end of the year
At the same time, Hill reportedly announced the agency is also working on a regime for stablecoin issuance and expects to issue a proposal for an application process by the end of 2025 as part of its duties in crafting rules under the GENIUS Act, according to Law360.
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He said it’s still too early to know how many institutions will be interested, but the FDIC staff is working on the standards around capital requirements, reserve requirements and risk management for FDIC-regulated stablecoin issuers.
Stablecoins have also been a high-growth area, with banks worldwide exploring this technology. The market capitalization of stablecoins is approximately $305 billion as of Friday, according to blockchain analytics platform DefiLlama.
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Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have scrapped plans to break their manifesto pledge and raise income tax rates in a massive U-turn less than two weeks from the budget.
The decision, first reported in the Financial Times, comes after a bruising few days which has brought about a change of heart in Downing Street.
Read more: How No 10 plunged itself into crisis
I understand Downing Street has backed down amid fears about the backlash from disgruntled MPs and voters.
The Treasury and Number 10 declined to comment.
The decision is a massive about-turn. In a news conference last week, the chancellor appeared to pave the way for manifesto-breaking tax rises in the budget on 26 November.
She spoke of difficult choices and insisted she could neither increase borrowing nor cut spending in order to stabilise the economy, telling the public “everyone has to play their part”.
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‘Aren’t you making a mockery of voters?’
The decision to backtrack was communicated to the Office for Budget Responsibility on Wednesday in a submission of “major measures”, according to the Financial Times.
The chancellor will now have to fill an estimated £30bn black hole with a series of narrower tax-raising measures and is also expected to freeze income tax thresholds for another two years beyond 2028, which should raise about £8bn.
Tory shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said: “We’ve had the longest ever run-up to a budget, damaging the economy with uncertainty, and yet – with just days to go – it is clear there is chaos in No 10 and No 11.”
How did we get here?
For weeks, the government has been working up options to break the manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT on working people.
I was told only this week the option being worked up was to do a combination of tax rises and action on the two-child benefit cap in order for the prime minister to be able to argue that in breaking his manifesto pledges, he is trying his hardest to protect the poorest in society and those “working people” he has spoken of so endlessly.
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Ed Conway on the chancellor’s options
But days ago, officials and ministers were working on a proposal to lift the basic rate of income tax – perhaps by 2p – and then simultaneously cut national insurance contributions for those on the basic rate of income tax (those who earn up to £50,000 a year).
That way the chancellor can raise several billion in tax from those with the “broadest shoulders” – higher-rate taxpayers and pensioners or landlords, while also trying to protect “working people” earning salaries under £50,000 a year.
The chancellor was also going to take action on the two-child benefit cap in response to growing demand from the party to take action on child poverty. It is unclear whether those plans will now be shelved given the U-turn on income tax.
A rough week for the PM
The change of plan comes after the prime minister found himself engulfed in a leadership crisis after his allies warned rivals that he would fight any attempted post-budget coup.
It triggered a briefing war between Wes Streeting and anonymous Starmer allies attacking the health secretary as the chief traitor.
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The prime minister has since apologised to Mr Streeting, who I am told does not want to press for sackings in No 10 in the wake of the briefings against him.
But the saga has further damaged Sir Keir and increased concerns among MPs about his suitability to lead Labour into the next general election.
Insiders clearly concluded that the ill mood in the party, coupled with the recent hits to the PM’s political capital, makes manifesto-breaking tax rises simply too risky right now.
But it also adds to a sense of chaos, given the chancellor publicly pitch-rolled tax rises in last week’s news conference.
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