UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis has vowed that the government will “end asylum hotels”, as protests are taking place this weekend in towns across the country.
He acknowledged that the Labour administration needs to meet its 2024 manifesto commitment to close all the hotels housing asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament, but it needed to be done in a “managed and ordered way”.
The latest figures showed there were more than 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels, marking a rise of 8 per cent during the Labour’s first year in office. It is thought there were more than 400 hotels housing asylum seekers open in the summer of 2023, but Labour has said this has since been reduced to fewer than 210. The hotels have been the focus of anti-immigrant protests.
Campaign group Stand Up To Racism held counter-protests outside asylum hotels on Friday, including in Bournemouth, Cardiff and Leeds, with at least another 16 demonstrations expected on Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday afternoon, anti-immigration protesters waving Union flags faced off with anti-racism demonstrators outside the council offices in Portsmouth city centre.
One protester tied a large flag of St George reading “Born in England, Live in England, Die in England” to a balcony.
Stand Up to Racism demonstrators also put up a banner, saying “Refugees Welcome, Celebrate Diversity”.
Police in the southern port city enforced a gap between the two groups as the anti-immigrant group chanted: “Send them home,” and the opposing group chanted: “Refugees are welcome here.”
The government is seeking the right to appeal against a High Court ruling which blocks asylum seekers being housed in the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.
Asked whether he was “worried about any copycat protests” following the court's decision this week, Mr Jarvis told broadcasters: “We’ve made a very clear commitment that we’re going to close all of the asylum hotels.
“That was a manifesto commitment that we stood on and we will honour.”
In a statement, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “We agree with communities across the country that all asylum hotels need to close, including the Bell Hotel, and we are working to do so as swiftly as possible as part of an orderly, planned and sustained programme that avoids simply creating problems for other areas or local councils as a result of piecemeal court decisions or a return to the kind of chaos which led to so many hotels being opened in the first place.”
Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary injunction on Tuesday that blocked asylum seekers from being housed in the hotel from September 12.
Other councils controlled by Labour, the Conservatives and Reform UK are now investigating whether they could pursue legal challenges against asylum hotels.
The Home Office will seek to appeal against the High Court’s refusal to allow it to intervene in the case, Mr Jarvis said.
A successful appeal would open the way for a wider court challenge of the temporary injunction.
The local authority sought legal action when the hotel became the focus of protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the town, which he denies.
Before judgment was handed down in the council case this week, barristers for the Home Office asked to intervene, citing the “substantial impact” caused to Ms Cooper in performing her legal duties to asylum seekers.
They argued that moving asylum seekers in the short period would cause “particular acute difficulties” for the government.
But the bid was dismissed by Mr Justice Eyre who said Home Office involvement was “not necessary”.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “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.”
