A former Labour justice secretary has warned that Reform UK will continue to rise in opinion polls unless the government moves faster to close hotels housing people seeking asylum.
On Friday, the government won a court of appeal challenge against an injunction by Epping Forest district council that would have resulted in 130 asylum seekers being moved out of the Bell hotel. In recent weeks the hotel has become the focus of repeated protests, some of which have been orchestrated by far-right extremists and have turned violent.
Despite the technical victory for the Home Office, as other local councils could have brought legal challenges against the use of hotels if the appeal had not been successful, ministers are braced for further legal battles.
Charlie Falconer, who served as lord chancellor and justice secretary under Tony Blair, said the government was right to take the Epping case to the court of appeal but that people wanted action to close asylum hotels.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve obviously got to move forward in relation to closing the hotels and also stopping the crossings.
“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.”
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has consistently led in opinion polls since the spring, with the latest BMG poll for the i newspaper putting the party on 35%, 15 points ahead of Labour.
Lord Falconer rejected suggestions that the UK might 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, 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.”
After the decision on Friday, the Home Office minister Angela Eagle said: “We inherited a chaotic asylum accommodation system costing billions. This government will close all hotels by the end of this parliament and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way that avoids the chaos of recent years that saw 400 hotels open at a cost of £9m a day.”
The Refugee Council’s chief executive, Enver Solomon, said using hotels to house asylum seekers was “untenable”, adding: “Waiting until 2029 to end their use is no longer an option. As long as hotels remain open, they will continue to be flashpoints for protests, fuelling division and leaving people who have fled war and persecution feeling unsafe.”
The charity urged ministers to adopt its “one-off” scheme that would grant temporary permission to stay to those asylum seekers most likely to be recognised as refugees because of the situation in their home country. This would lead to the closure of hotels by next year, according to its own analysis.
On Friday night, two men were arrested and charged after a protest outside the Bell hotel, Essex police said.
Ross Ellis, 49, of Orchard Croft, Harlow, was charged with failing to provide a specimen and was due to appear at Chelmsford magistrates court on Saturday.
Jimmy Hillard, 52, of Chequers Road, Loughton, was 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 remained in custody.
Protests are scheduled to continue throughout the weekend. On Saturday, about 200 people gathered outside a hotel in Stockport for a protest billed as “Save Our Kids”. Many were draped in St George’s flags or union jacks; one man wore a T-shirt that read: “Enoch Powell was right.”
Protesters gathered on the playing fields outside the hotel before marching to the back of the building, apparently to get nearer to the rooms where the asylum seekers have been staying.
One man shouted, “Where are you Mohammed?”, while another shouted: “Pop the boats.” Teenagers directed their middle fingers towards the bedrooms.
Many families have been housed in the hotel over the past two years, with their children attending local schools.
One man, whose shirt read “I only kneel for the queen, the fallen and to take aim”, led a mass singalong of “If you don’t like our country fuck off home” to the tune of She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain.
Asked whether he was concerned about intimidating the hotel residents, he said: “By what? A 70-year-old fucking Englishman. They are not intimidated. They are fighting-aged men. Are you telling me that they’re scared of us? We’re scared of them.”
He added: “We’re at war.” Asked what the war was, he replied: “Between Islam and Christianity.”
The protest was called by Wayne Bentley, an electrician and army veteran, who said: “Somebody had to step up and do something to tell the people of Stockport that our children are not safe on the streets of Stockport.”
Through a megaphone, he referred to an incident in which a man living in a hotel in Manchester allegedly tried to kidnap a 10-year-old girl in a Stockport park.
Edris Abdelrazig, 30, from Sudan, was charged with attempted child abduction on 13 July. He denies the charges and will go on trial next year.
Bentley mentioned another two alleged incidents, neither of which have been linked to asylum seekers living in the hotel outside of which he was protesting.
One incident allegedly involved a man seen “filming children playing on the park”. A photograph purporting to show the man being taken away by police was circulated widely online afterwards. No one was charged in connection with the incident because no crimes had been identified, according to Greater Manchester police (GMP). The man was not a resident at the hotel.
Bentley also told the crowd of an incident involving an “innocent woman” who was attacked in woods near the hotel. After the alleged attack in April, police issued an efit showing a man with dark hair and full beard. No one has been charged in connection with the incident and investigations continue, according to GMP.
