Home Office launches appeal after court blocks migrant hotels | Politics | News
The Home Office is desperately fighting to keep The Bell Hotel open for migrants, it has emerged.
Ministers on Friday confirmed they confirmed they are appealing the High Court’s decision to refuse Home Secretary Yvette Cooper the right to intervene in the Epping legal case.
Insisting Labour wants to close asylum hotels, Security Minister Dan Jarvis defended the controversial move by saying it must be done “in a managed and ordered way”.
Judge Mr Justice Eyre granted a temporary injunction preventing asylum seekers from being housed in the community in Epping.
Community leaders and politicians declared Tuesday’s bombshell legal ruling a “victory for the mums and dads”.
But Security Minister Dan Jarvis said the Government would appeal against the decision on Friday, which if successful would open the way for a wider appeal against a temporary injunction blocking the Home Office from using the Bell Hotel as asylum accommodation.
Mr Jarvis said closing hotels housing asylum seekers must be done “in a managed and ordered way” as he unveiled Government plans to challenge the High Court’s decision related to the Bell Hotel in Epping.
He told broadcasters: “This Government will close all asylum hotels and we will clear up the mess that we inherited from the previous government.
“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.”
Asked whether he was “worried about any copycat protests” following the High Court’s decision this week, the security minister 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.
“We’re clearing up the legacy that we inherited from the previous government but the closures of these hotels need to be done in an ordered and managed way.”
The High Court ruling threw Labour’s asylum accommodation plans into turmoil by putting the future of more than 200 hotels at risk.
Councils across the country are plotting similar legal bids to close migrant hotels.
Home Office figures – covering Labour’s first full year in office – show there are still 32,059 migrants living in hotels.
This is up 8% from 29,585 in the year to June 2024.
Some 111,084 people applied for protection in the year to June, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
This is up 14 per cent from 97,107 in the year to June 2024 and nearly double the number in 2021.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said of Keir Starmer’s first year in Goverment: “Britain has become a magnet for illegal immigration and a playground for people smugglers.
“The truth on asylum hotels is just as damning.
“Arrivals are up, asylum hotels are bursting, billions are being wasted, crime is climbing, and it’s our local communities who are carrying the burden.
“Britain deserves a Government that will defend its borders and that requires decisive action.
“Keir Starmer has had a year in power. His shameful record is more small boats, more immigrants in hotels and fewer removals. He is weak and he is failing the British people.
“A Government that cannot stop the crossings, close the hotels, or deport illegal arrivals has forfeited the right to claim it is defending Britain.”
The sharp increase was fuelled by a surge in migrants lodging claims after arriving on work and study visas and failed asylum seekers trying their luck after being rejected in Europe, experts said.
Home Office figures show 14,800 people claimed asylum after arriving on a student visa.
Another 12,200 arrived on a work visa, prompting more fears of widespread abuse.
Home Office sources have confirmed they have identified it as a “new route” into the UK and are scrambling to close the loophole.
The most common nationalities among asylum applicants in the year to June 2025 were Pakistani (10.1% of the total), Afghan (7.5%), Iranian (7.0%) and Eritrean (6.7%).
Shocking analysis revealed 90% of Pakistanis claimed asylum after travelling to the UK on a valid visa, while 87% of Bangladeshi applicants travelled to the UK legally.
A further 71% of Indian asylum applicants used a visa to travel to the UK, highlighting widespread fears over the abuse of the UK’s generosity.
By contrast, 84% of Afghans who claimed asylum arrived by a small boat. Some 89% of Eritrean applicants arrived the same way.
The asylum crisis cost taxpayers £4.76 billion a year in 2024/25, down from a record £5.38bn in 2023/24.
But the number of Channel migrants being deported under Labour is falling.
Some 2,330 people have been deported during Keir Starmer’s first full year in office, compared to 2,516 in the final year of the Conservative Government.
In total, just 6,313 small boat migrants have been returned since the crisis began in 2018.
Shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam said: “Labour talk tough on smashing the gangs and stopping the boats, but the reality is returns are far too low and Starmer’s government is weakening the infrastructure needed.
“Slashing investment at Manston migrant processing centre from £2.7 billion to under £1 billion and delaying upgrades until 2029 leaves Britain without the detention and deportation capacity we desperately need. Without proper facilities, migrants can’t be detained and removed. That’s why returns are so abysmal on Labour’s watch.
“Instead of fixing the system, they are hollowing it out, leaving taxpayers footing the bill for hotels and communities paying the price.
“Unless Labour reverse course and invest in real deportation capacity, Britain will remain powerless to control its borders.”
