Two of the city's MPs have called for an investigation after it emerged that dozens of children seeking asylum have been kidnapped.

According to the Observer, around 600 unaccompanied children have stayed at a hotel in Hove over the last 18 months, with 136 reported missing. 

The newspaper claims that about 79 of these remain unaccounted for.

Labour councillors, along with Hove MP Peter Kyle and Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle have called for an “urgent investigation” into the situation.

A spokesman for Labour said: “We have repeatedly warned the Home Office, local Green administration and council CEO that the existence of a hotel housing unaccompanied children seeking asylum is unlawful and would attract serious organised criminals intent on exploitation.

“As recently as earlier this month, the administration at Brighton and Hove City Council claimed the hotel was not being targeted by serious crime and that children were leaving of their own accord.

“Now, based on corroborated whistleblower testimony, the administration’s claims are demonstrably false.”

The local Labour group has slammed the government for not providing safeguarding children kept at the hotel and has called for children currently in hotels to be urgently transferred to foster placements and for all hotels accommodating unaccompanied children to be closed with immediate effect.

Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has described the recent revelations as “truly appalling and scandalous” and called on the government to reveal how many children had disappeared and what is being done to find them.

She said: “Home Secretary Suella Braverman has failed to act on the repeated warnings she has been given about totally inadequate safeguards for children in their care.

“It is a total dereliction of duty for the Home Office to so badly daily to protect child safety or crackdown on the dangerous gangs putting them at terrible risk. Ministers must urgently put new protection arrangements in place.”

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said they are continuing to work with the Home Office, police, the NHS and statutory agencies to ensure children are safe and that their welfare is cared for while living in the city.

He said: “We have been actively involved when any child is reported missing and have worked with the police and other agencies to try and trace them.

“For many months now, we have been raising with the government our concerns about the Home Office’s use of hotels to accommodate asylum-seeking children.”