Thousands more migrants face removal from hotels

Labour blow as councils mull legal action after Epping ruling

- HOLLY BANCROFT ALICJA HAGOPIAN JESSICA BENJAMIN

Labour is bracing for a wave of legal action that could displace thousands of asylum seekers after councils across England signalled they could seek to ban hotels for migrants.

Home Office minister Dan Jarvis has said that the government is working on contingency plans for housing asylum seekers after Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary High Court injunction, forcing the removal of the 136 migrants who live there, in a landmark ruling on Tuesday.

The order blocks asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, which has been the site of a series of violent protests that have seen police officers injured and multiple people arrested for disorder in recent weeks.

Former Tory immigration minister Robert Jenrick called for “all patriotic councils to follow Epping’s lead and pursue injunctions”, and deputy leader of Reform, Richard Tice, urged residents to protest at hotels housing migrants to force their removal.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has demanded Labour hold an emergency cabinet meeting to address the “migrant crisis”, and called on home secretary Yvette Cooper to commit that none of the asylum seekers in the Bell would be moved into hotels, houses, apartments or social housing.

He cited Tory plans to use larger sites to house asylum seekers, despite the National Audit Office finding use of former military bases to be significantly more expensive than paying for hotel accommodation.

Analysis of Home Office figures by The Independent shows that the government has already made progress on cutting the asylum backlog, with the number of people waiting for initial decisions on their applications dropping to 78,000 from its peak of 133,000 in 2023 under the Tory government.