Cooper Must Now Find an Alternative to Hotels - and Fast - While Reform UK Turn Up the Pressure

Government Caught Flat-Footed on Immigration Issue

- Rajeev Syal

Yvette Cooper, thanks to yesterday's high court ruling, is facing potentially explosive decisions over where to house asylum seekers if courts rule that they must leave hotels. The Home Office, usually under Conservative ministers, has been struggling for five years to find an alternative to hotels so they can house a growing number of asylum seekers reaching these shores.

Labour has said it expects to empty the 200-odd hotels housing asylum seekers by 2029. Ministers may be forced to rip up that plan and move at a rapid pace because of the ruling's implications. If councils take to the high court to complain about the use of a hotel for housing asylum seekers, it could force officials to find alternative housing for thousands of people.