'Pathetic' Badenoch pushes for asylum hotels challenge

Kemi Badenoch has been branded a “hypocrite” for calling for Conservative councils to challenge the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers in their local areas.

- ATHENA STAVROU

The Tory leader said in a letter on Wednesday that she was encouraging councils to take the same steps as Epping Forest District Council “if your legal advice supports it”.

But the move has been criticised as “desperate and hypocritical nonsense”, given the Conservatives’ own record with asylum hotels.

At the peak of their use in the summer of 2023 under the Conservative government, there were more than 400 asylum hotels in use.

Figures on those staying in hotels date back to December 2022 and showed numbers hit a peak at the end of September 2023, when there were 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels.

The Essex council secured a temporary injunction from the High Court on Tuesday, blocking the use of Epping’s Bell Hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers on planning grounds.

A Labour spokesperson says Badenoch’s letter is a ‘pathetic stunt’