Tragic death of a Blackpool man sleeping in a tent dragged into asylum hotel row: 'It's entirely wrong'

Every death on the streets is a tragedy. No one should die while experiencing homelessness. But a recent death in Blackpool has since been twisted by the ongoing anger at asylum hotels.

A man in his 40s died in Blackpool’s Revoe Park in the early hours of the morning on 15 September after the tent where he was sheltering was struck by a branch that fell from a “mature” tree in high winds.

Police found the man unresponsive in the park and emergency services declared him dead at the scene. He has not been named.

“Our enquiries are ongoing to trace his next of kin,” a Lancashire Police spokesperson told Big Issue.

“The man’s death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be passed in due course to HM Coroner.”

The tragic death came while a yellow warning was in place across Lancashire due to high winds, which ran from 6pm on the Sunday (14 September) through to 6pm on Monday the following day.

Despite the weather warning, Blackpool Council did not invoke the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (Swep) – a voluntary order for local authorities to bring rough sleepers indoors during periods of extreme weather that pose a threat to life.

A council spokesperson confirmed to the Big Issue that local authority’s outreach teams were not aware of anyone sleeping rough in the park.

A Blackpool Council spokesperson said: “We are awaiting further information to understand the circumstances that led to him sleeping in the park. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this terribly sad time.”

But while investigations continue, the sad death has been dragged into the ongoing debate about asylum hotels on social media.

A local Facebook page called Blackpool’s Voice saw one post that described the case as “heartbreaking” liked more than 11,000 times. It read: “We need somewhere the homeless can stay when they have registered with the council. Some are even sleeping in toilets to be safe and dry.

“Where have our homeless got to stay? Especially in the bad weather??”

The comments quickly turned to the immigration debate. “Shame… pity he didn’t get a free Hotel Room like others, guess he was the wrong colour,” one commenter wrote.

Another said: “Our own people sleeping outside, and the boat scroungers in hotels.”

“It’s all wrong it should be Starmer in the tent,” another person wrote.

This was not the only post inundated with comments of a similar nature. Links to Granada Reports and Blackpool Gazette stories also saw an identical reaction.

Read more:

• Cost of housing homeless people in temporary accommodation soars to £2.8bn
• More than 1,400 people died while homeless in the UK in 2023: ‘People are dying at terrifying rates’
• Meet the primary school children with big ideas to end homelessness in the UK

Like in other parts of the UK, there have been protests outside the seafront Metropole Hotel housing asylum seekers in Blackpool.

Chris Webb, Blackpool South’s Labour MP, has spoken out against the social media backlash. He said it was wrong to use the tragedy in Revoe Park to score political points or fuel further division.

“This week we learnt of the tragic death of a man in Revoe Park, after a tree branch fell on his tent during severe weather. My deepest condolences go to his family and friends at this incredibly difficult time,” Webb told Big Issue.

“It is entirely wrong to co-opt this tragedy to fuel division and hate. Every single person deserves the dignity of a safe roof over their head, no matter who they are or where they’re from.

“The man who lost his life deserved safety and dignity. The best way we can honour him is by redoubling our efforts to tackle homelessness in Blackpool – whether that’s pressing for more support from government, or raising the alarm when we see someone sleeping rough in our community.”

There is currently no information on the man’s nationality, why he was sheltering in the park or the circumstances that led him to be there.

That information gap has been filled with rhetoric about homelessness from the far-right: the idea that people only deserve support on the street in Britain if they are British.

Museum of Homelessness (MOH) has previously analysed far-right social media accounts to challenge these ideas and explore how they influence policy.

The 2022 study found that the argument that migrants are considered more important than Brits experiencing homelessness, often categorised as veterans, “sows division and allows for the building of stigma”. That created an image of the “most deserving type” of person experiencing homelessness. 

“It is a highly effective and emotive way of presenting homelessness in the service of racism and xenophobia,” the MOH study concluded.

Responding to the death in Blackpool last week, MOH co-founder Matt Turtle said: “We are deeply saddened to hear about this death. We have campaigned for years for councils to do more to protect people from increasing extreme weather.

“This is what people should be discussing but unfortunately his death is being used by people to spread division and stir up hatred against refugees on social media and elsewhere. This is despicable and wrong. We share our condolences with all who knew him and we remember him with love.”

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