UK Labour councils join rush to expel migrants from hotels

Scores of Labour, Conservative and Reform councils in the UK are poised to begin legal action to expel migrants from local hotels after a key High Court ruling.

Protesters rally for the fourth week running near the Britannia hotel in Seacroft, Leeds. Picture: Alamy Live News.

Labour councils are among dozens throughout the country poised to begin legal action to shut migrant hotels after a key High Court ruling.

Ministers are scrambling to devise contingency plans to house migrants, while 80 Labour, Conservative and Reform councils consider their legal positions. On Tuesday, Conservative-run Epping Forest district council was granted a temporary injunction blocking the Bell Hotel from being used to house migrants.

The ruling put the asylum accommodation system at risk of collapse. Migrants being held in such hotels are awaiting judgment on whether they can claim asylum and may include those who have arrived in the UK via small boats.

In a sign of a growing rebellion against the government, two Labour-run councils – Tamworth and Wirral – confirmed they were considering different approaches, while an MP in the party expressed support for closing hotels “as quickly as possible”.

Yesterday (Wednesday) Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, wrote to all 65 Conservative councils celebrating the “victory” and encouraging them to “take the same steps” to “protect your community” after consulting planning officers.

The injunction related to the Bell was granted on the basis that it had failed to apply for planning permission for a “material change” in its use.

There has been a marked increase in the use of hotels to provide asylum accommodation since 2020 when the Tories were in government. About 1,200 asylum seekers were housed in hotels then. Two years later the number had risen to more than 47,000, House of Lords library research shows.

Anti illegal immigration protesters outside The Roundhouse hotel in Bournemouth. Picture: Getty Images.

Reform UK said the 12 councils it controlled were looking at their legal options and urged residents to protest at hotels housing migrants in an effort to force their removal.

The ruling prompted the council in Antrim and Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, to start an “enforcement investigation” into the planning status of an asylum hotel.

Carol Dean, leader of Labour-run Tamworth borough council, which was the scene of violent disorder after the Southport stabbings, said the ruling “represented a potentially important legal precedent”. She said the council had explored similar legal avenues when the Home Office started housing asylum seekers there. However, it did not pursue a temporary injunction after noting that other cases had been initially granted but were “not ultimately upheld by the courts”.

The authorities on the Wirral had to deal with similar hostilities after a hotel in Hoylake became the target of protests. Paula Basnett, the leader of Wirral’s council, said it was “unacceptable for the government to impose unsuitable, short-term arrangements that disrupt communities and bypass local decision-making”.

Demonstrators protest outside the New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle. Picture: Getty Images.

A Labour MP whose constituency has also had protests backed “any measure to close the hotels as quickly as possible”. The MP, who did not want to be identified, told The Times: “I’d like to see the end of profiteering contractors benefiting off asylum which is rudimentary, unsuitable and unwanted in our community.”

The government has been trying to reduce the use of asylum hotels – the number has fallen from 400 in 2023 to 210. The number of asylum seekers living in hotels fell from 46,000 at the end of 2022 to 38,000 at the end of last year, according to the Migration Observatory at Oxford. But the number of people living in “dispersal” accommodation jumped from 56,000 to 66,000.

Dan Jarvis, the security minister, told Times Radio that migrants in Epping would be “appropriately accommodated” at other sites. “We’re looking at a range of different contingency options,” he said.

The first council to follow Epping’s example was Broxbourne, which is controlled by the Conservatives, in Hertfordshire. Corina Gander, leader of the local authority, said: “We are expecting to go down the same path as Epping.”

Robert Jenrick, the shadow home secretary, said “patriotic” local authorities and community groups should “follow Epping’s lead”.

The Times