Sir Keir Starmer has promised small boat migrants will be “detained and sent back” as he faced mounting pressure to show results on tackling English Channel crossings and ending the use of asylum hotels.
The number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats remains at a record high for this point in a year and small-scale protests continued over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
Labour former lord chancellor Lord Falconer warned his party that support for Reform UK would continue to grow unless the Government is able to show results on tackling the problem.
In a social media post, Sir Keir said: “I am clear: we will not reward illegal entry. If you cross the Channel unlawfully, you will be detained and sent back.”
The UK and France are trialling a scheme that will see migrants arriving on small boats sent back to France in exchange for an asylum seeker being sent from the continent on a legal route.
The numbers involved in the pilot scheme are likely to represent a small fraction of those who arrive, a figure which stands at 29,003 so far in 2025, a record for this point in a year.
The Government won a Court of Appeal challenge against an injunction which would have seen asylum seekers moved out of the Bell Hotel, Epping, but ministers are braced for further legal battles and ongoing protests over the use of hotels around the country.
Lord Falconer said the Government was right to take the Epping case to the Court of Appeal but that people wanted action to close asylum hotels, as Labour has promised to do by the time of the next general election.
He rejected suggestions the UK may have to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to be able to efficiently remove people with no right to be in the country.
Lord Falconer, who served under former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “We’ve obviously got to move forward in relation to closing the hotels and also stopping the crossings.”
If the Epping injunction had not been overturned on Friday, some 138 asylum seekers would no longer have been able to be housed there beyond September 12.
The case could have had wider ramifications as more than 200 hotels are being used to house asylum seekers – not all of whom will have arrived on small boats – around the country.
Lord Falconer 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.
“But the country wants some action in relation to it.”
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has consistently led in opinion polls since the spring, with the latest BMG poll for The I putting them on 35%, 15 points ahead of Labour.
Lord Falconer said he did not “buy the idea of leaving the ECHR”, saying it would be damaging because it would mean “deporting people back into danger”.
“It does not mean that you can do nothing. You’ve got to think of ways of deterring people from coming here, the obligation that we’ve got is not to deport into danger. That doesn’t mean that you can’t, for example, deport to third countries.”
The court victory by the Home Office and the Bell’s owners Somani Hotels triggered criticism from the Government’s political opponents, while protesters said they would now hold regular demonstrations against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
A demonstration outside the Home Office planned by a group calling itself the Great British National Protest failed to materialise when only a handful of people turned up on Saturday.
Two bloggers said they had travelled all the way from Leicester for the protest and were disappointed by the poor turnout.
Two men have been charged following a protest on Friday night outside the Bell Hotel in Epping after the Court of Appeal’s ruling.
Ross Ellis, 49, of Orchard Croft, Harlow, has been charged with failing to provide a specimen and was appearing at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.
Jimmy Hillard, 52, of Chequers Road, Loughton, has been charged with assaulting an emergency worker and is due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
A third man arrested on suspicion of violent disorder remains in custody, Essex Police said.
Epping Forest District Council is set to decide on Monday whether to take its battle over the Bell Hotel to the Supreme Court.
Council leader Chris Whitbread told the BBC: “We’re looking at all the options, including looking to appeal to the Supreme Court.
“The judgment yesterday was just so deeply disappointing that we just need that time over the weekend to review what the judgment actually means, take on board all the legal advice that we’re getting, and then moving forward from there.”
At least 13 other councils are considering pressing ahead with legal action over the use of asylum hotels in their areas, according to The Times.
Among them are several Labour-run authorities, the newspaper said.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged Tory councils to pursue such legal action.
“Keir Starmer has shown that he puts the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British people who just want to feel safe in their towns and communities,” Mrs Badenoch said.
Mr Farage claimed the Government had “used ECHR against the people of Epping”.
