Senior judges will today rule on whether to overturn a court ruling to block asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping.
Ministers were rocked last week when a High Court judge said asylum seekers could not be housed at the hotel, which has seen widespread protests this summer, beyond September 12. Government lawyers called for the temporary injunction to be torn up. The court’s decision on the Home Office’s appeal is expected around 2pm.
Keir Starmer has vowed to close all asylum hotels by 2029, but the Home Office says the process must be carefully managed. Edward Brown KC, representing the department, told the Court of Appeal yesterday that individual injunction bids “ignore the obvious consequence that closure of one site means that capacity then needs to be identified elsewhere”.
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