A wave of local authorities are vowing to block asylum seekers being housed in hotels after Epping Forest District council won a shock victory in the High Court following weeks of protests
Nigel Farage has claimed that all councils controlled by Reform UK will “do everything in their power” to block asylum hotels being set up in their areas after yesterday’s controversial Epping ruling.
Ministers are bracing for further legal challenges from councils across the country after the Essex local authority won a High Court injunction to evict asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel. The Home Office had warned the judge that an injunction could “interfere” with its legal obligations, while lawyers representing the hotel’s owner argued it would set a dangerous “precedent”, leaving authorities with few options for providing emergency accommodation for migrants.
The shock ruling followed weeks of at-times violent protests outside the hotel, after a man from Afghanistan was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Now, the Reform UK leader has vowed his party would seek to block any hotels being used for asylum processing in the council areas it currently controls – and a Tory council has already pledged to follow Epping Forest council’s lead.
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Which councils are planning to block asylum seekers?
The following Tory and Reform councils and mayoral areas have indicated that they are going to take action over asylum seekers staying in local accommodation:
- Broxbourne
- Derbyshire
- Doncaster
- Durham
- Greater Lincolnshire (mayoralty)
- Hull & East Yorkshire (mayoralty)
- Kent
- Lancashire
- Lincolnshire
- North Northamptonshire
- Nottinghamshire
- Staffordshire
- West Northamptonshire
What has Nigel Farage said?
In a column for the Telegraph this morning, the Reform UK leader urged people to hold “peaceful protests outside the migrant hotels” and “put pressure on local councils to go to court to try and get the illegal immigrants out”.
He added: “I can say today that the English local councils controlled by the party I lead, Reform UK, will be doing everything in their power to follow Epping’s lead.”
What will the government do?
Number 10 has already announced plans to move asylum seekers from hotels into houses of multiple occupancy into other forms of accommodation by the end of this parliament – but the new ruling is likely to give the Home Office a headache as to what to do in the meantime.
Security minister Dan Jarvis told Times Radio today: “We’re looking at a range of different contingency options following from a legal ruling that took place yesterday, and we’ll look closely at what we’re able to do.”
Epping Forest council had successfully argued that the use of the Bell Hotel for asylum seekers was not a permitted use of the hotel for planning purposes.
Asked whether other migrant hotels have the proper planning permission, Mr Jarvis said: “Well, we’ll see over the next few days and weeks. Other local authorities will be considering whether they wish to act in the same way that Epping (Forest) District Council have.“I think the important point to make is that nobody really thinks that hotels are a sustainable location to accommodate asylum seekers. That’s precisely why the Government has made a commitment that, by the end of this Parliament, we would have phased out the use of them.”