The Bibby Stockholm: the Langham Family and their right wing links
3 August 2023
A family firm that donated more than £70,000 to UKIP is “profiteering from misery” by hosting the Government’s controversial migrant barge. Langham Industries owns Portland Port, where the Bibby Stockholm is docked in a deal reported to be worth some £2.5 million.
The Langham family owns luxurious properties and has links to high-profile politicians, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, Their business made 19 donations to the pro-Brexit party UKIP between 2003 and 2016 according to a news report in the Daily Mirror.
Late founder John Langham was described as an “avid supporter” of UKIP in an obituary in 2017. Now his children, John, Jill and Justin – all directors of the family firm – are set to profit from an 18-month contract with the Home Office to let the Bibby Stockholm berth at Portland, Dorset.
While Portland Port refuses to reveal how much the Home Office is paying, its website cites berthing fees for a ship the size of the Bibby Stockholm at more than £4,000 a day. In 2011, Portland Port chairman John, 71, invested £3.7 million in Grade II* listed country pile Steeple Manor at Wareham, Dorset. Dating to around 1600, it has a pond, tennis court and extensive gardens designed by the landscape architect Brenda Colvin.
The arrangement to host the “prison-like” barge for housing migrants has led some locals to blast the Langhams, who have owned the port since 1997. Portland mayor Carralyn Parkes, 61, said: “I don’t know how John Langham will sleep at night in his luxurious home, with his tennis court and his fluffy bed, when asylum seekers are sleeping in tiny beds on the barge. I went on the boat and measured the rooms with a tape measure. On average, they are about 10ft by 12ft. The bunk bed mattresses are about 6ft long. If you’re taller than 6ft, you’re stuffed. The Langham family need to have more humanity. They are only interested in making money. It’s shocking.”
Phil Marfleet, 75, joint secretary of Stand Up To Racism Dorset, added: “They are profiteering from misery. The firm has decided to have several hundred refugees on a ship designed for half of that in prison-like conditions. Many refugees who end up on the ship will have fled war zones and been through dangerous journeys to get here. The contrast between the homes the Langhams own and the barge the refugees will be put in is very stark.”
The Langham family seem quite happy to support right-wing political parties that are against immigration, while at the same time profiting handsomely from the misery of refugees who are forced to claim sanctuary here.