Migrant hotels have been the talk of the week after the High Court granted Epping Forest district council a temporary injunction on Tuesday – meaning the asylum seeker residents of Essex’s Bell Hotel must be moved within 24 days. It’s a landmark ruling that will have significant ramifications for the rest of the country – with just under 30 other councils considering similar legal action. Talk about getting the ball rolling…
Politicians have been quick to make use of the situation for political point scoring, with shadow home secretary Chris Philp attacking Labour for ‘tearing up the deterrents the Conservatives put in place’. This prompted a heated response from a Home Office source: ‘Philp was the first immigration minister to move asylum seekers into this hotel, Robert Jenrick was the second and at their peak they had more than 400 hotels open at a cost of almost £9 million a day.’ While the number of asylum hotels has fallen, from 400 in the summer of 2023 to 210 now, today’s figures revealing that Labour’s first year has seen 111,000 asylum claims hardly helps…
But who does the public believe is to blame? Well, polling giant YouGov consulted 5,292 British adults today to find out. The results are rather interesting: more Brits blame the previous Conservative government than Sir Keir Starmer's army for the migrant hotel problem. A third of British adults believe the last Tory administration is to blame, with less than a fifth pointing the finger at Labour. However four in ten adults say the responsibility rests with 'both equally', while one in ten adults don't know. It's slightly more positive news for Labour, but Home Secretary Yvette Cooper still has her work cut out…
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