A FRESH wave of migrant protests is underway today, as dozens demonstrate just days after the landmark Epping ruling.
An estimated 27 demonstrations are set to take place over the bank holiday weekend.
A fresh wave of migrant protests is underway today, as dozens demonstrate just days after the landmark Epping rulingSWNS
Anti-migrant protesters demonstrate near the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in HorleyAlamy
PAA protester filming through the door outside the Castle Bromwich Holiday Inn in Birmingham[/caption]
Today, protesters draped in England flags have stood outside of hotels in Birmingham and Solihull in protest.
Two uniformed police stood guard at the entrance to the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf, east London, which has recently been the focus of anti-migrant protests.
Security guards could also be seen standing behind full length barriers that blocked off the entrance way.
About 20 protesters stood on the other side of the road with Union flags propped up against a fence.
They ranged in ages from an adult wearing a t-shirt bearing the name of Tommy Robinson to a schoolgirl wearing a Union flag dress and bow in her hair.
She had tied a St George’s flag around her shoulders.
A woman carried a homemade banner which read: “Tower Hamlets council house homeless Brits first” which had a St George’s flag drawn on it.
Another banner read: “Enough is enough protect our women and girls.”
Yesterday, demonstrations under the Abolish Asylum System slogan were being held in major towns and cities around England, including Bristol, Exeter, Tamworth, Cannock, Nuneaton, Liverpool, Wakefield, Newcastle, Horley in Surrey and Canary Wharf in central London.
Aberdeen and Perth in Scotland and Mold in Flintshire, Wales, were also holding protests.
A separate batch of protests were organised by Stand Up to Racism in Bristol, Cannock, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Wakefield, Horley and Long Eaton in Derbyshire.
In Bristol, mounted police were brought in to separate rival groups in the Castle Park.
In Horley, around 200 anti-immigration protesters draped in St George and Union flags and roughly 50 Stand Up to Racism protesters were seen in Bonehurst Road.
THE EPPING RULING
It comes after the High Court granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction to remove asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, from September 12.
On Tuesday, the High Court granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction to remove asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, from September 12.
Regular protests had been held outside the hotel in recent weeks after an asylum seeker was charged with trying to kiss a 14-year-old girl, which he denies.
The Government announced plans on Friday to appeal against the High Court’s refusal to allow it to intervene in the case, and to further appeal against the temporary injunction.
Other local councils also publicly announced their intention to seek legal advice as to whether they could achieve a similar injunction for hotels in their areas.
The High Court ordered the removal of migrants from the hotel in Essex, which has become the face of the row over asylum seeker accommodation.
Mr Justice Eyre made his judgement after refusing an 11th-hour effort from Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to get the council’s case dismissed.
The High Court refused to allow the Government to intervene in the Bell Hotel case.
But security minister Dan Jarvis said the Home Office will appeal this decision.
If successful, this could lead to the Government appealing a temporary injunction blocking the Home Office from using the Bell Hotel as asylum accommodation entirely.
They have to be an interested party in order to lodge an appeal.
Somani Hotels, the owner of the Bell Hotel in Epping, will also appeal against the court order, the company’s solicitors have said.
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.
Before judgment was handed down on Tuesday, barristers for the Home Office asked to intervene in the case, citing the “substantial impact” caused to Yvette Cooper in performing her legal duties to asylum seekers.
They argued moving asylum seekers in the short period would cause “particular acute difficulties” for the Government, but their bid was dismissed.
Since the injunction was granted, councils across the country controlled by Labour, the Conservatives and Reform UK are investigating whether they could also pursue legal challenges against asylum hotels.
It comes after it was revealed that a record number of people claimed asylum in the UK in the last year – with a massive 32,000 currently living in taxpayer-funded hotels.
Home Office data shows that 111,000 people claimed asylum in the year ending June 2025 up 14 per cent on last year.
It is higher than the previous recorded peak of 103,000 which was set in 2002.
The number of people claiming asylum in this country has almost doubled since 2021.
And just under half of all those applying for protection in the UK are granted it at the initial decision stage – 48 per cent.
It is lower than in 2022 when 77 per cent of those applying were given the green light.
SWNSA small number of protesters with St George’s flags protest outside the Holiday Inn in Solihull[/caption]
AlamyAnti-migrant protesters near the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Horley[/caption]
PAProtesters look through a door as people demonstrate under the Abolish Asylum System slogan outside the Castle Bromwich Holiday Inn in Birmingham[/caption]
What has the Home Secretary said?
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This government inherited an asylum system in chaos, with decision-making at a standstill, the backlog soaring, and tens of thousands of asylum seekers staying in expensive asylum hotels with no prospect of their case being resolved.
“As set out in our manifesto, this Government will end asylum hotels and bring the number of people in the asylum accommodation system right back down. We have already taken immediate action to start fixing the broken system we inherited, doubling the rate of asylum decision-making, increasing the removal of failed asylum-seekers by almost 30 per cent, and taking action to prevent overseas workers and students claiming UK asylum when their visas expire.
“The number of asylum hotels is now around half what it was at its peak under the previous government, when more than 400 hotels were in use at a cost of almost £9 million per day. Over the course of 2024/25, we reduced the cost of asylum hotels by almost a billion pounds compared to the previous financial year.
“But we have committed to go much further to reduce those costs, and to end the use of asylum hotels entirely.
“In recent months, we have set out plans to deliver that commitment, including reducing the number of people entering the system, increasing and speeding up the returns of failed asylum-seekers, overhauling the broken appeals system we inherited so that failed asylum seekers do not stay in the system for years, and putting in place more appropriate accommodation for those who genuinely need it.
“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.
“That is the reason for the Home Office appeal in this case, to ensure that going forward, the closure of all hotels can be done in a properly managed way right across the country without creating problems for other areas and local councils.
“What we cannot have is a replica of the chaotic and disorderly situation that we saw under the previous government in 2022, when 140 extra hotels were opened in the space of six months because they lost control of the system. The previous government which caused that chaos is now trying to pretend that their time in office didn’t happen, and are simply trying to make the situation worse.
“While they play politics with this issue, we will get on with the job of sorting out the mess that they left behind, closing every one of the hotels that they opened, and doing so in a controlled and managed way.”
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