Asylum seekers to stay at Epping hotel in bombshell court ruling as minister makes vow

The Government won a major legal victory tonight - as they vowed to shut all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament.

Senior judges overturned an imminent ban on housing asylum seekers at a hotel in Epping, Essex, which risked plunging the asylum system into chaos. In a bombshell ruling, the Court of Appeal scrapped an injunction that would have forced the 138 migrants living at the Bell Hotel to leave by September 12.

The decision marks a victory for the Home Office, which was braced for a flurry of legal challenges from other councils. The hotel has become a flash point for anti-immigration protests, with some resulting in violent clashes with police, after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

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Some locals gathered outside the hotel on Friday to express fury at the court ruling, while others appealed for calm.

The leader of Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) Councillor Christopher Whitbread accused the Government of letting residents down but urged protesters against violence. He said: "We don't want to see some violent scenes around the hotel or in the town itself that would only help the Government's arguments."

Last week, a High Court judge granted an interim injunction after the council argued that the Bell's owner, Somani Hotels, had breached planning rules by housing asylum seekers.

But Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, overturned it on Friday, citing concerns that it could incentivise "disorderly" and "unlawful" protests around asylum accommodation.

The judges warned it could encourage other councils to take similar action and said EFDC's delay in bringing its legal challenge was "procedurally unfair". A final decision on the future of the hotel will be taken at a later court date this autumn.

Keir Starmer has pledged to shut all asylum hotels by 2029 but the immediate closure of the Bell Hotel risked seeing asylum seekers turfed out onto the streets.

Home Office Minister Angela Eagle said: “We inherited a chaotic asylum accommodation system costing billions.

"This Government will close all hotels by the end of this Parliament and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way that avoids the chaos of recent years that saw 400 hotels open at a cost of £9million a day.”

She said urgent action was being taken to relieve pressures on the system, with 35,000 people with no right to be in Britain deported since July 2024.

She added: "It will take some time to fix the broken system we inherited, but the British public deserve nothing less, and we will not stop until the job is done.”

The Government faces a battle to clear the backlog in asylum cases which soared under the Tories as they tried to get their disastrous Rwanda deportation scheme off the ground.

Official figures show there are around 32,000 people living in asylum hotels This is well below a peak of 56,000 in September 2023 when the Tories were in power.

Shameless Tories Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick claimed the Government was on the side of migrants - but failed to mention how use of asylum hotels soared on their watch.

Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais, said the ruling had "made it clear that violent protest, and in many cases overt racism, is not a fast-track route for the far right to attack the rights of people seeking sanctuary in this country".

Refugee Council chief executive, Enver Solomon, said using hotels to house asylum seekers was “untenable”.

He said: “Waiting until 2029 to end their use is no longer an option. As long as hotels remain open, they will continue to be flashpoints for protests, fuelling division and leaving people who have fled war and persecution feeling unsafe.”

The Refugee Council is calling for the Government to bring in a one-off scheme granting people from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan and Iran limited leave to stay - as long as they pass security checks.

A small number of demonstrators arrived at the hotel on Friday carrying St George and Union Jack flags while police officers guarded the hotel entrance.

Mum and protest organiser Sarah White, 40, said demos would continue for weeks. She said: “We are outraged by the decision.

"This sends a deeply troubling message to our community: that the rights of asylum seekers are being placed above the rights of the residents who actually live here.”

Paul Robinson, 43, appealed for calm. The local office worker said: “People need to calm down now, please. I think we need to stay calm and understand the decision.

“Feelings need to cool down. There’s so much anger, it’s wrong. I don’t think shouting at the hotel and the migrants will now help.”

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