Leader says Epping asylum ruling changes nothing

Dudley’s leader says a ‘woke’ ruling allowing asylum seekers to stay in an Essex hotel will not change his policy.

On August 29, the Court of Appeal overturned a decision from a High Court judge which created a temporary injunction forcing The Bell Hotel in Epping  to be cleared of asylum seekers by September 12.

The decision was challenged by the government and the hotel owners and the appeal was allowed after the Court of Appeal ruled there were flaws in how the original ruling was made.

Dudley Council’s leader, Cllr Patrick Harley, had already instructed his legal team to investigate possible legal challenges to prevent asylum seekers being housed in hotels in the borough and he says the latest ruling changes nothing.

Cllr Harley said: “This ruling is not unexpected. A woke judiciary system and the most handwringing Prime Minister of all time whose lawyers said in court that the rights of asylum seekers trumps the right to safety of local people. 

“That just about sums Starmer, the Home Secretary and this Labour government up. This will not change a thing for Dudley as I have our legal team looking at how best we deal with this. 

“These are preventing young single male asylum seekers from being placed in hotels or HMO`s. 

“Seeking a borough wide injunction against any being placed here and finally, action and enforcement to prevent other councils from using Dudley as a dumping ground for their own homelessness problem.”

Epping Forest District Council had been granted the injunction after arguing the hotel required a change of use to be granted by council planners before it could house asylum seekers.

The hotel housed around 140 asylum seekers and had been the scene of demonstrations by people living near it in recent weeks.

Other areas where hotels are used to house asylum seekers have also been the scene for demonstrations recently, including in Dudley where around 200 people staged a peaceful protest on August 17.

The government aims to stop using hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of the current parliament and says the appeal was intended to allow asylum seekers to be cleared from hotels in an ‘orderly way’.

It is understood there are 72 asylum seekers housed in just one hotel in Dudley borough out of around 4,000 asylum seekers placed in hotels across the West Midlands.