Sir Keir Starmer will appeal against the High Court’s shock ruling over a migrant hotel in Epping, it was announced today.
Security minister Dan Jarvis revealed the Government will appeal against a refusal to allow the Home Office to intervene in the case.
If successful, it could open doors to a broader challenge against a temporary injunction that prevents the Home Office from using the Bell Hotel in Essex as accommodation for asylum seekers.
This week, the High Court granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction to stop asylum seekers from being housed in the hotel starting September 12.
The council had sought legal action after the asylum accommodation site had been at the centre of protests in recent weeks.
The demonstrations were held after an asylum seeker was charged with trying to kiss a 14-year-old girl, which he denies.
Before the High Court judgment was handed down on Tuesday, barristers for the Home Office unsuccessfully attempted to intervene in the case.
They cited the ‘substantial impact’ caused to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in performing her legal duties to asylum seekers.
They also contended that relocating asylum seekers briefly would present ‘especially severe challenges’ for the Government, but their attempt was rejected.
Following the issuance of the Epping injunction, numerous other local authorities have started exploring the possibility of initiating legal actions against hotels housing asylum seekers.
This situation has risked destabilizing Labour’s asylum policy and has increased the pressure on the Prime Minister to honor his promise to eliminate the use of migrant hotels by 2029.
A wave of protests outside asylum seeker hotels is expected in the coming days.
The Government will appeal against the High Court’s shock ruling over the use of the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, to house asylum seekers
Epping Forest District Council had sought legal action after the asylum accommodation site had been at the centre of protests in recent weeks
Security minister Dan Jarvis revealed the Government will appeal against a refusal to allow the Home Office to intervene in the case.
In announcing the Government’s intention to contest the High Court’s ruling, Mr. Jarvis stated to broadcasters on Friday: ‘This Government will shut down all asylum hotels, and we will resolve the issues that we took on from the previous administration.’
‘We’ve made a commitment that we will close all of the asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament, but we need to do that in a managed and ordered way.
‘And that’s why we’ll appeal this decision.’
Hotels in Cannock, Chichester and Tamworth are among those expected to be targeted with demonstrations by anti-immigration campaigners.
Anti-racism groups already organising counter-protests in 15 locations across the three-day Bank Holiday weekend.
They are prepared to turn up on Friday night in the likes of Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Leicester, Leeds, Orpington, Perth, Aberdeen and Altrincham.
The High Court ruling has threatened to throw Labour’s asylum policy into chaos and heaped pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to fulfil his pledge to end the use of migrant hotels by 2029
The Epping demonstrations were held after an asylum seeker was charged with trying to kiss a 14-year-old girl, which he denies
The Epping injunction threatens to collapse Labour’s asylum system as 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.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has used the Epping case as a rallying cry.
He said: ‘Let’s hold peaceful protests outside hotels and put pressure on councils to go to court to try to get illegal immigrants out.’
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’.
Tory MP Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: ‘The Epping Bell Hotel injunction has been a victory for local people, led by a Conservative council working hard for their community.
‘This is the difference Conservatives in local government deliver. In opposition Labour worked hand in glove with activist lawyers to sabotage Conservative immigration plans. In government, nothing has changed.
‘It is completely wrong that the Labour government is taking legal action to keep open the Bell Hotel.
‘The Government isn’t listening to the public or to the courts. Instead of trying to keep illegal immigrants in expensive hotels the Conservatives would remove all illegal arrivals, put in place a real deterrent, and ensure towns like Epping are never put in this position again.
‘In the nine months before the election Conservatives closed 200 hotels. If that had continued there wouldn’t be any asylum hotels now – but instead the number of asylum seekers in hotels have gone up since the election under Labour.
‘This problem is being caused because 2025 so far is the worst year ever for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel.
‘Most are young men who have paid people smugglers to illegally enter the UK. Labour has lost control of our borders and communities up and down the country are paying the price.’
