But it insists it will continue to try to identify ‘appropriate alternative sites’ for asylum seekers waiting for their asylum claims to be processed.

The announcement is confirmation that, as we reported yesterday, plans for an asylum centre to house up to 1,500 male refugees at the former RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse will NOT now go ahead.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said yesterday that he had 'withdrawn' the offer for the disused air base to be used as an asylum centre – sparking huge relief amongst villagers.

Mr Wallace said he had ‘obligations to do something else’ with the site – prompting speculation about what that might be.

Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake, who spoke to the defence secretary yesterday, could say only that the site had ‘some commercial potential – but there could be lots of uses.’

Dr Olga Matthias of the Linton-on-Ouse action group said today that for now the ‘nightmare has gone’. But she added: “I hope we don’t have to fight again against whatever they cook up next for the base. I suppose we all have to ‘watch this space’."

In its statement, the Home Office insisted that it remained ‘steadfastly committed to tackling illegal migration and stopping dangerous small boat crossings’.

A spokesperson said: “The government will continue to identify appropriate sites for Greek-style asylum reception centres which will play a key role in reducing the number of asylum seekers in hotels which cost the taxpayer more than £5 million each day.”

The statement added that the MoD would maintain use of RAF Linton-on-Ouse until its ‘planned disposal’ – and that the government would continue to identify appropriate alternative sites for asylum reception centres.

It clearly hopes to emulate the Greek model, where individual claims are processed on site within self-contained asylum reception centres where refugees have access to essential facilities such as healthcare.

Local charities and campaigners have repeatedly criticsed this approach.

Paul Wordsworth of York City of Sanctuary said cooping refugees up for months or even years in large reception centres with limited facilities amounted to ‘criminalising’ them.

Dr Matthias, meanwhile, said the problem was not the number of asylum seekers coming into the UK – it was the Home Office's failure to process them quickly enough.

Welcoming the news that plans for the asylum centre at Linton-on-Ouse now appear to be off the table, Cllr Mark Robson, the leader of Hambleton District Council, pointed out that his authority had ‘yet to be formally notified’.

“Until we receive this notification, legal work remains ongoing,” he said.

He added: “Had we as a council not intervened with this proposal and challenged the Government when we were first made aware of its plans, it is my firm belief that there would already be asylum seekers on site with the numbers steadily building up week by week.”