Protesters were already gathering outside the Bell hotel by Friday evening with union flags and St George’s flags waving. This court ruling was never going to end as a quiet legal moment.
For the Home Office, the court of appeal’s decision was a practical win. If the ruling had gone the other way, the government would have been forced to rehouse 138 asylum seekers in a matter of days, opening the floodgates to similar legal challenges from other councils. Since there is scant alternative accommodation available, this ruling buys the government time.
Government insiders say that by the end of the year they expect at least five more hotels housing asylum seekers to close, with more to follow in the new year. If the closures proceed, the ruling means they still have time to deliver their promise of shutting all the hotels down “in a controlled and orderly way” by 2029.
But political tensions have, of course, been reignited. Nigel Farage immediately jumped on the moment, accusing the government of “using the law against the people of Epping”. He said “illegal migrants now have more rights than the people of Essex” and promised Reform UK would “put an end to this”. This is the kind of high-emotion, high-visibility moment Farage thrives on and is a story that plays into his hands.
Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, also piled in, telling supporters on X: “Judges side with illegal migrants against British people. ECHR used by judges to overrule planning law, democratic protests and the safety of Epping residents.”
The government remains stuck in the same political fight: trying to stave off challenges from the right while at the same time getting on with the job of ensuring there is a functioning political project that can communicate its wins.
Kemi Badenoch, the opposition leader, has told Tory councils to “keep going” with their legal challenges, despite the court ruling making it clear that protest and local pressure will not count in planning law.
Views in her party slant right on the issue, but not exclusively. One senior Conservative MP said: “They’re human beings – they have to live somewhere. For me the issue is: where’s the deterrent?” But another backbencher said: “We have to make it impossible for them to stay open.”
Farage had described the mood in the country on Tuesday around the issue of immigration as being “a mix between total despair and rising anger”. Yet he persistently confuses irregular migrants with asylum seekers who are fleeing harm.
Recent polling shows the issue is one of voters’ biggest concerns, with a YouGov poll revealing 71% of voters think Keir Starmer is handling the asylum crisis poorly, including a majority of his own supporters. Nearly seven in 10 said immigration levels were too high, which indicates why Farage was able to seize another moment this week to claim a “genuine threat to public order” unless this issue is solved.
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The government says its plan is working: the backlog is falling and deportations are increasing, and a deal with France has been signed. But as of Friday evening, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, had not commented publicly. The last post on X from the official Labour party account is a photo of Farage with the caption: “No plan. No idea.”
There is still a long way to go before Labour can look back on what it has achieved in its first parliament. But public mood is shifting faster than policy.
This Labour government did inherit a broken system, and a large number of hotels opened by the Conservatives. But it has not stopped the Tories washing their hands of it, or Farage from circling. On the streets outside the Bell hotel, the noise is getting louder, along with fears there could be more protests across the country to come.
