Migrant hotels must be closed in a “properly managed way” rather than through “piecemeal court decisions”, Yvette Cooper has insisted.
The Home Secretary said the Home Office’s controversial decision to fight the closure of The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, would prevent chaos elsewhere in the asylum system.
Judge Mr Justice Eyre granted a temporary injunction preventing asylum seekers from being housed in the hotel in Epping because it did not have planning permission.
Community leaders and politicians declared Tuesday’s bombshell legal ruling a “victory for the mums and dads”.
Ms Cooper said: “We agree with communities across the country that all asylum hotels need to close, including the Bell Hotel, and we are working to do so as swiftly as possible as part of an orderly, planned and sustained programme that avoids simply creating problems for other areas or local councils as a result of piecemeal court decisions or a return to the kind of chaos which led to so many hotels being opened in the first place.
“That is the reason for the Home Office appeal in this case, to ensure that going forward, the closure of all hotels can be done in a properly managed way right across the country without creating problems for other areas and local councils.
“What we cannot have is a replica of the chaotic and disorderly situation that we saw under the previous government in 2022, when 140 extra hotels were opened in the space of six months because they lost control of the system.
“The previous government which caused that chaos is now trying to pretend that their time in office didn’t happen, and are simply trying to make the situation worse.
“While they play politics with this issue, we will get on with the job of sorting out the mess that they left behind, closing every one of the hotels that they opened, and doing so in a controlled and managed way.”
The High Court ruling threw Labour’s asylum accommodation plans into turmoil by putting the future of more than 200 hotels at risk. Councils across the country are plotting similar legal bids to close migrant hotels.
The Home Office had warned the High Court that a temporary injunction could have a devastating impact on its asylum accommodation plans. Barristers, acting on behalf of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, warned of a surge of “similar applications made elsewhere that would then aggravate pressures on the asylum estate”.
Injunction applications could become a “new norm adopted by local authorities”, they added.
The Home Office lawyers also suggested that granting the injunction “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests”.
Ms Cooper added: “This government inherited an asylum system in chaos, with decision-making at a standstill, the backlog soaring, and tens of thousands of asylum seekers staying in expensive asylum hotels with no prospect of their case being resolved.
“As set out in our manifesto, this Government will end asylum hotels and bring the number of people in the asylum accommodation system right back down.
“We have already taken immediate action to start fixing the broken system we inherited, doubling the rate of asylum decision-making, increasing the removal of failed asylum-seekers by almost 30 per cent, and taking action to prevent overseas workers and students claiming UK asylum when their visas expire.
“The number of asylum hotels is now around half what it was at its peak under the previous government, when more than 400 hotels were in use at a cost of almost £9 million per day. Over the course of 2024/25, we reduced the cost of asylum hotels by almost a billion pounds compared to the previous financial year.
“But we have committed to go much further to reduce those costs, and to end the use of asylum hotels entirely.
“In recent months, we have set out plans to deliver that commitment, including reducing the number of people entering the system, increasing and speeding up the returns of failed asylum-seekers, overhauling the broken appeals system we inherited so that failed asylum seekers do not stay in the system for years, and putting in place more appropriate accommodation for those who genuinely need it.”
Home Office figures – covering Labour’s first full year in office – show there are still 32,059 migrants living in hotels. This is up 8% from 29,585 in the year to June 2024. Some 111,084 people applied for protection in the year to June, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
This is up 14 per cent from 97,107 in the year to June 2024 and nearly double the number in 2021.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said of Keir Starmer’s first year in Goverment: “Britain has become a magnet for illegal immigration and a playground for people smugglers. The truth on asylum hotels is just as damning. Arrivals are up, asylum hotels are bursting, billions are being wasted, crime is climbing, and it’s our local communities who are carrying the burden.
“Britain deserves a Government that will defend its borders and that requires decisive action. Keir Starmer has had a year in power. His shameful record is more small boats, more immigrants in hotels and fewer removals. He is weak and he is failing the British people.
“A Government that cannot stop the crossings, close the hotels, or deport illegal arrivals has forfeited the right to claim it is defending Britain.”
The sharp increase was fuelled by a surge in migrants lodging claims after arriving on work and study visas and failed asylum seekers trying their luck after being rejected in Europe, experts said.
Home Office figures show 14,800 people claimed asylum after arriving on a student visa. Another 12,200 arrived on a work visa, prompting more fears of widespread abuse. Home Office sources have confirmed they have identified it as a “new route” into the UK and are scrambling to close the loophole.
The most common nationalities among asylum applicants in the year to June 2025 were Pakistani (10.1% of the total), Afghan (7.5%), Iranian (7.0%) and Eritrean (6.7%).
Shocking analysis revealed 90% of Pakistanis claimed asylum after travelling to the UK on a valid visa, while 87% of Bangladeshi applicants travelled to the UK legally. A further 71% of Indian asylum applicants used a visa to travel to the UK, highlighting widespread fears over the abuse of the UK’s generosity.
By contrast, 84% of Afghans who claimed asylum arrived by a small boat. Some 89% of Eritrean applicants arrived the same way. The asylum crisis cost taxpayers £4.76 billion a year in 2024/25, down from a record £5.38bn in 2023/24.
But the number of Channel migrants being deported under Labour is falling. Some 2,330 people have been deported during Keir Starmer’s first full year in office, compared to 2,516 in the final year of the Conservative Government.
In total, just 6,313 small boat migrants have been returned since the crisis began in 2018.
Shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam said: “Labour talk tough on smashing the gangs and stopping the boats, but the reality is returns are far too low and Starmer’s government is weakening the infrastructure needed.
“Slashing investment at Manston migrant processing centre from £2.7 billion to under £1 billion and delaying upgrades until 2029 leaves Britain without the detention and deportation capacity we desperately need. Without proper facilities, migrants can’t be detained and removed. That’s why returns are so abysmal on Labour’s watch.
“Instead of fixing the system, they are hollowing it out, leaving taxpayers footing the bill for hotels and communities paying the price.
“Unless Labour reverse course and invest in real deportation capacity, Britain will remain powerless to control its borders.”