LAW AND ORDERLY

Labour vows asylum hotels WILL close... in controlled way

- BY LIZZY BUCHAN Political Editor and ISAAC CROWSON

THE government won a major legal victory last night, as they vowed to shut all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament.

In a bombshell ruling, senior judges overturned a ban on housing asylum seekers at a hotel in Epping, Essex, which risked plunging the asylum system into chaos.

The Court of Appeal scrapped an injunction that would have forced the 138 migrants living at the Bell Hotel to leave by September 12.

It marks a victory for the Home Office, which had been braced for a flurry of legal challenges from other councils.

Keir Starmer has pledged to shut all asylum hotels by 2029 but the ruling risked asylum seekers being turfed out on to the streets.

Home Office Minister Angela Eagle said: "We appealed so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way."