Plans to house migrants on a barge could see Home Secretary Suella Braverman facing a legal challenge from a fellow Conservative MP.

Ricard Drax is working to get the plan for the “floatel”, which would be situated in his South Dorset constituency, “consigned to the dustbin”.

The Tory-run Dorset council is also opposed to the use of Portland Port as the site of the Bibby Stockholm vessel, which is effectively a large block of flats on a floating platform.

It could accommodate 506 migrants in 222 bedrooms on the three-storey 93-metre long vessel, at a reported cost of £20,000 a day.

The Home Office has said new types of accommodation for asylum seekers must be used to reduce a £6m daily bill for using hotels.

Portland Port confirmed it had been selected by the Home Office as a site for a migrant barge but Dorset Council said it has “serious concerns about the suitability of the location for this facility”.

The vessel would cost £15,000 a day to charter, The Times reported, while the cost of berthing it in Portland would be more than £4,500 a day and additional costs would be required for services, including security and catering.

Mr Drax, who has previously backed rigorous measures to cut the UK’s level of immigration, said the barge was “dumped on our door” without consultation by the Home Office and urged Ms Braverman to scrap the idea.

“Every option’s being looked at including legal action,” he said.

“We want to get this consigned to the dustbin before anything’s signed.

“We want to activate ourselves and say ‘look, home secretary, sorry, this is not the right place, can you please cancel this’.”

The MP added the site is a “very, very restricted area” as he raised concerns about keeping hundreds of vulnerable people there, which he said would place pressure on the port’s “very small” police force.

“They will be allowed out on a bus every so often but in effect will be incarcerated for quite a lot of the time,” he said.

He also raised concerns about the impact on businesses in the nearby seaside resort of Weymouth.

“This is an extremely sensitive area which relies heavily on summer trade, I cannot see how this is going to be anything but detrimental,” he said.

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Bibby Marine, the Liverpool-based firm which operates the Bibby Stockholm, would not provide information about its negotiations with the Home Office.

But the company said it provides “practical, safe and comfortable accommodation solutions” at a “cost-effective” price.

The firm described the Stockholm vessel, which is currently in Italy, as offering “luxury living” with a gym, bar, restaurant and games room.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick recently said migrants would be housed in “rudimentary” accommodation instead of hotels while asylum claims are processed, meeting “their essential living needs and nothing more”.

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Bibby Marine said the barge has been refurbished since it was described as an “oppressive environment” when the Dutch government used it to house asylum seekers.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The pressure on the asylum system has continued to grow and requires us to look at a range of accommodation options which offer better value for money for taxpayers than hotels.”

Other Conservative MPs and councils are also pushing back against government proposals for new temporary accommodation for migrants.

Conservative-run local authorities have threatened legal action against the Home Office over its proposals to use RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and RAF Wethersfield in Essex to house thousands of migrants.

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