Asylum hotels latest: More than a dozen protests at migrant hotels expected across UK this weekend

People have “every right to engage in protest”, the shadow home secretary has said, amid concerns a High Court ruling could trigger a wave of demonstrations outside asylum hotels.

Chris Philp named three Conservative-led councils which are considering taking legal action against hoteliers whose property is being used to house asylum seekers.

His party’s leader Kemi Badenoch has written to Conservative council leaders “encouraging” them to follow Epping Forest District Council’s footsteps by launching bids to shut these hotels, if their “legal advice supports it”.

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“They’ve got to know that if they come here, they won’t stay here.” Nigel Farage? Robert Jenrick? Suella Braverman? Not on this occasion. These hostile words about refugees coming by irregular means to Britain were uttered on the BBC by a King’s Counsel, chum of Tony Blair, the former lord chancellor and impeccable social democrat Lord Falconer.

A pillar of the liberal establishment and still a senior and respected figure in Labour circles, Charlie Falconer is perhaps indicative of a shifting mood at the top of his party about how to deal with the migrant crisis – both in practical policy terms, and as it is currently translating into some pretty raw party politics.

As Falconer says, immigration, and specifically irregular so-called “illegal” migration is fast becoming a “defining political issue”. As he did not say, but heavily implied, it may also kill the first Labour government for 14 years long before its time.

Read the latest analysis from Sean O’Grady here:

The Government has vowed to ramp up removals of migrants with no right to be in the UK to deter those coming or staying in the country illegally.

Of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel, some 569 people were returned in April-June this year.

This is down from 605 in the previous quarter, and is made up of both enforced and voluntary returns, where people who face deportation left of their own accord.

Some 2,330 migrants who arrived in small boats were returned during the year to June, down from 2,516 in the previous 12 months.

Of the 2,330 returns in the year to June, 75 per cent were Albanian nationals.

• Latest Home Office data shows the number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels has risen by 8 per cent under Labour on the same point last year.
• The figures come just days after a court ruled that more than 100 asylum seekers currently staying at a hotel in Essex should be removed from the accommodation after a council brought a legal case.
• The data shows there were 32,059 asylum seekers in UK hotels by the end of June, up from 29,585 at the same point a year earlier, when the Conservatives were still in power.
• Government spending on asylum in the UK stood at £4.76 billion in 2024/25, down 12 per cent from a record £5.38 billion in 2023/24

A council at the centre of a legal case to block a hotel from housing asylum seekers was among the top 10 UK local authorities which saw the biggest rise in numbers staying in this kind of accommodation in recent months.

Epping Forest District Council in Essex went from housing 28 asylum seekers in hotels in its area in March this year, to 199 by the end of June.

The latest data breakdown, published by the Home Office on Thursday, comes two days after the council secured a High Court temporary injunction blocking the use of Epping’s Bell Hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers on planning grounds.

The legal case followed protests and counter-protests outside the Bell Hotel.

There were 124 local authorities across the UK housing asylum seekers in hotels at the end of June, according to the Home Office data.

This is around a third of all UK authorities.

Epping Forest District Council won an interim injunction to stop asylum seekers being hosted at The Bell Hotel, saying it had become a “feeding ground for unrest.”

The judgement requires all migrants currently housed in the hotel – around 140 men as of last month – to leave by 4pm on 12 September.

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Labour MP Oliver Ryan has condemned recent attacks on his constituents “for the colour of their skin” and an arson attack on a building that was falsely believed to be repurposed for asylum seekers.

The Burnley MP said: “Last night in Gannow, a building 100 metres from Whittlefield Primary was set on fire after online speculation and a Reform councillor said it was being converted into a HMO site, implying completely falsely that this is being used to house illegal migrants. It isn’t even applying to be a HMO but supported social housing.”

He continued: “I want to be clear despite Reform councillors praying for one and whipping up as much as they can, we don’t have any asylum hotels in the Burnley constituency.

“What we do have however, quite shamefully, is families and individuals being attacked in our area. British families and British individuals for the colour of their skin. I’ve been contacted by many of them, windows being put in on houses where people are assuming asylum seekers live.”

It follows a High Court ruling on Tuesday that banned the use of The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, for asylum seekers after lawyers argued it had become a “feeding ground for unrest” following a string of violent protests at the site.

As Labour braces for a fresh round of legal action from revolting councils seeking similar bans in their areas, new Home Office figures reveal that the number of people claiming asylum in the past year soared to a record 111,000, while small boats continue to cross the Channel at increasing rates.

Read the full analysis from our data correspondent Alicja Hagopian here:

Asylum seekers have a human right to privacy in their homes, the City of York council has said as right-wing politicians call for protests outside of migrant hotels.

Reform MP Richard Tice yesterday urged local residents to protest outside asylum hotels.

Now Labour-led City of York council have said that allocation of asylum accommodation is up to central government, adding: “Asylum seekers also have a human right to privacy in their home and we wouldn’t release details relating to this, including whether any hotels are being used in our area.“

We are not progressing with any legal action relating to hotel accommodation.”