People have “every right to engage in protest”, the shadow home secretary has said, amid concerns a High Court ruling could trigger a wave of demonstrations outside asylum hotels.
Chris Philp named three Conservative-led councils which are considering taking legal action against hoteliers whose property is being used to house asylum seekers.
His party’s leader Kemi Badenoch has written to Conservative council leaders “encouraging” them to follow Epping Forest District Council’s footsteps by launching bids to shut these hotels, if their “legal advice supports it”.
Epping Forest District Council in Essex secured a High Court temporary injunction this week, blocking the use of Epping’s Bell Hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers on planning grounds.
Mr Philp told BBC Breakfast that Borough of Broxbourne Council in Hertfordshire, Reigate and Banstead Borough Council in Surrey, and Hillingdon Council in London were each considering taking similar legal action.
“So, I think there are many up and down the country who are looking at this following the Epping ruling,” he said.
Mr Philp added: “I think these councils are, you know, sick and tired of having these asylum hotels housing predominantly young men who entered the country illegally in their communities.
“They want to see them closing down and that is why I think they’re rightly looking at legal action.”
Asked whether there was a “risk” the High Court’s decision “will encourage more protests and problems in communities outside these hotels”, Mr Philp told BBC Breakfast: “People are understandably angry about the Government, the Labour Government’s failings, the border crisis they’re presiding over.
“They do have the right to peacefully protest – I do stress the word ‘peacefully’. Peaceful protest is lawful, it is every citizen’s right to do that.
“Of course, if it isn’t peaceful, that is wrong and that should be dealt with by the police, but where protest is peaceful, people have every right to engage in protest.”
He had earlier claimed that “reporting says hundreds of charges have been laid against illegal immigrants being accommodated in these hotels”.
At the High Court this week, lawyers for the Home Office warned that a temporary injunction in Epping “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests” elsewhere, after several demonstrations outside the Bell Hotel.
Edward Brown KC, for the Government, also warned the move would “substantially interfere” with the Home Office’s statutory duty in potentially avoiding a breach of the asylum seekers’ human rights.
Speaking on Thursday, minister Catherine McKinnell said Labour had “inherited a terrible mess from the last government when it comes to the immigration system and particularly the processing of asylum claims – massive backlog”.
The education minister told Sky News: “(I) absolutely recognise the concerns that local communities have and we want to work with local communities to find solutions.”
Pressed on the speed of Government efforts to close asylum hotels, Ms McKinnell said: “What we’ve done is doubled the number of asylum claims that have been processed.
“So, that is reducing the number of people who are requiring this accommodation, but also returning people that shouldn’t be here.
“We’re also committed to ending the use of asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament.
“So, it will take some time to clean up the situation that we’ve inherited, but, you know, it’s really important that we continue to both manage the accommodation that people are currently in and also speed up the process.”
A Labour spokesperson described Mrs Badenoch’s letter as being a “pathetic stunt” and “desperate and hypocritical nonsense from the architects of the broken asylum system”, and added there were now “20,000 fewer asylum seekers in hotels than at their peak under the Tories”.
The Conservative leader told her party’s town hall leaders that whether or not to block a hotel from housing asylum seekers “will depend on individual circumstances of the case” and continued: “But it is the Labour Government which is trying to ram through such asylum hotels without consultation and without proper process.”
Richard Biggs, Conservative leader of Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, told the PA news agency: “We are studying the judgment with our lawyers to understand it and if a similar action would work for us.
“We have had some impact and we had a protest outside our hotel in August which was local people having a peaceful protest to express their concerns.”
He added that “wider infrastructure has to be considered when determining planning”.
Broxbourne leader Corina Gander previously told PA the decision in nearby Epping appeared to set a “massive precedent” and the borough council is now seeking advice.
Leaders at Labour-led authorities in Tamworth and Wirral have said they are considering the High Court’s decision in relation to hotels in their areas.
Reform UK leaders in Staffordshire and West Northamptonshire are also considering further action.
