A wave of protests are set to sweep the country this weekend targeting migrant hotels.
Anti-immigration advocates are aiming to capitalize on this week’s significant court ruling, which required the removal of migrants from a hotel in Epping, Essex.
Protests are purportedly being organized at up to 30 hotels as communities attempt to duplicate the judgment for The Bell Hotel, which, unless an appeal is successful, needs to be vacated in the coming weeks.
The hotel became a protest focal point following an incident where an asylum seeker residing there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl, a charge he denies.
Similar demonstrations are anticipated at hotels in places like Cannock, Chichester, and Tamworth, while anti-racism organizations are already planning counter-rallies in 15 areas over the three-day Bank Holiday weekend.
They are prepared to turn up tonight in the likes of Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Leicester, Leeds, Orpington, Perth, Aberdeen and Altrincham.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has used the situation in Epping to galvanize support, urging: ‘Let’s stage peaceful protests outside hotels and urge councils to pursue legal action to remove illegal immigrants.’
Earlier this week, a judge issued a temporary injunction to prevent migrants from staying at The Bell Hotel after the Epping Forest council contended it was crucial for ‘the safety of nearby residents’ and to mitigate the risk of ‘violent protests’.
Anti-immigration campaigners are looking to ride on the back of this week’s landmark judgment that saw the High Court order the removal of migrants from a hotel in Epping, Essex (pictured: protesters in Epping this month)
Protesters outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, last month
The hotel had been at the centre of protests after an asylum seeker living there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl, which he denies
As it tried, unsuccessfully, to intervene in the case at the eleventh hour, the Home Office argued that granting Epping’s application ‘runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests’.
The ruling threatens to collapse Labour’s asylum system as protesters take to the streets and councils across the country prepare to hit the Home Office with copycat litigation over the use of hotels in their areas.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has written to all Conservative councils pledging support for any legal action, while Reform UK’s leaders have encouraged people to protest at their local asylum hotels.
But anti-racism groups have warned the ruling sets a ‘dangerous precedent’, with Stand Up To Racism saying that it will ‘embolden the far-Right to call more protests outside hotels housing refugees’.
Labour grandee Lord Falconer urged the Home Office to appeal against the Epping judgment on Thursday as he admitted the ruling ‘causes great problems’ for the Government.
The peer, who served as justice secretary under Sir Tony Blair and as Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow attorney general, said it ‘gives rise to the expectation that some asylum hotels can be closed’.
Lord Falconer said the ruling presents Labour with a ‘very troublesome issue, namely does demonstrations outside these hotels lead to it being more likely that they will be closed’.
Urging the Government ‘very strongly’ to appeal, he told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It puts the courts and the politicians in a difficult position.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has used Epping as a rallying cry, saying: ‘Let’s hold peaceful protests outside hotels and put pressure on councils to go to court to try to get illegal immigrants out’
A series of protests have taken place since the arrest of an asylum seeker for three alleged offences, leading to 28 arrests (pictured: demonstrators at the hotel this month)
‘There should be clarity on that and the authority in relation to that can only come from the Court of Appeal.’
The Home Office still could not say whether or not it plans to appeal on Thursday.
But pressure was mounting on the Government as all Tory councillors were sent a draft motion, produced by the Conservative Research Department and the Conservative Councillors’ Association, ‘strongly urging’ them to follow Epping’s example.
It included instructions on how to influence their local authorities.
Stevenage became the latest Labour-run council to say it would consider taking legal action over an asylum hotel in the Hertfordshire borough as the internal revolt grew.
The council had already warned a Novotel hotel it must stop housing asylum seekers or face planning enforcement action, and on Thursday said it was ‘actively investigating alleged breaches’ as it considered legal action similar to Epping’s.
Ministers were scrambling to find contingency plans to house migrants, with officials looking at houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), empty tower blocks, disused teacher training colleges and old student accommodation as alternatives.
The asylum minister, Dame Angela Eagle, told the Commons home affairs committee in June that the Government had shifted its focus from old military barracks to smaller locations such as tower blocks.
However, the Guardian reported officials are still considering placing people removed from hotels in the RAF Wethersfield base in Essex and Napier Barracks in Kent.
Meanwhile, it was also reported that asylum accommodation contractors working for the Home Office have contacted property specialists, seeking 5,000 residential units in towns and cities to house migrants.
But a Government minister could not answer when quizzed on where asylum seekers should go instead of hotels on Thursday.
Asked ‘where will they go?’, schools minister Catherine McKinnell said: ‘Well, I mean, that’s a big question.’
