Conservatives offer ALL councils free legal advice to demand asylum hotel closures

The Conservatives have offered to arrange free legal advice to any council planning a legal battle to move asylum seekers out of hotels - even if the authority is run by another party. At least four Labour councils are thought to be planning court fights to shut asylum hotels, including Wirral, Stevenage, Tamworth and Rushmoor, while Reform UK has told all 12 councils it controls to explore legal options. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has urged Conservative-run councils pursuing legal action to “keep going,”

Writing in the Sunday Express, Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Councils can and should still act to close hotels. “I have assembled a team of top lawyers who believe in borders to offer legal assistance to local councils to help prevent illegal migrants being forced upon local areas. Whether the council is run by the Conservatives, Reform or whoever else, we are on hand to help.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer responded to anger over asylum hotels by stepping up promises to deport small-boat migrants. He said: “I am clear: we will not reward illegal entry. If you cross the Channel unlawfully, you will be detained and sent back.”

It marked a change from his previous pledge that people who come to the UK illegally will “face” detention and return. Labour’s “one-in, one-out” deal with France allows a limited number of small boat migrants to be returned, and the Government has previously argued that this would be enough to deter illegal immigration even if not every unlawful migrant is sent back.

Epping Forest Council will tomorrow hold a meeting to consider its next steps, after a judge overturned a temporary injunction to remove asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel in the Essex district. Options include taking the case to the Supreme Court, while the authority will also make its case for a permanent ban at a court hearing in October.

Essex Police last night said three people were arrested after officers were injured during a protest outside the Bell Hotel on Friday. One man was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder, a second man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, and a third man was arrested on suspicion of drink driving after a car was driven on the wrong side of the road towards a police cordon.

The hotel became the focal point of protests and counter-protests after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl last month. He has denied the charges. Somani Hotels, which owns the Epping building, and the Home Office won their challenge against the High Court ruling on Friday, which would have stopped 138 asylum seekers from being housed there.

There were more protests yesterday as angry activists who descended on a Falkirk hotel were met by hundreds of counter protesters. A group calling itself Save Our Future and Our Kids Futures protested against the use of the Cladhan Hotel to house asylum seekers, and was met by about 200 counter-protesters from the trade union movement and the campaign group Stand Up To Racism.

Lord Falconer, a former Labour justice secretary, warned that his party would continue losing support to Reform UK unless the Government made progress on immigration. He said: “The Government always has the burden of doing what’s possible and the Government is doing the right thing in relation to it, but there’s a lot more to do, and if we don’t, as a government, do it, then you’ll see those opinion polls raised yet further for Reform, because they don’t have the burden of having to be practical.”