The migrant hotel at the centre of protests that descended into violence must be closed, Ministers have been told. Chris Whitbread, leader of Epping Forest District Council, issued a plea to the Home Office and warned that far-right groups could exploit local concerns if the hotel remained open.
And he urged Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to stay away after Robinson said he would attend future demonstrations outside the hotel. Coun Whitehead said: “What we want is the Home Office to act sensibly, recognise that this hotel is in the wrong location for this type of use and close it as quickly as possible.”
He told BBC Two’s Newsnight: “It’s a powder keg now and we need to get something done and we need the Home Office to listen.”
The council leader added: “Fair-minded people within the local community, initially protesting peacefully, want the hotel closed.
“I have to say, as the leader of the council, that’s always been my position and the council’s position. This is just not a suitable location. The sooner it’s dealt with, the better.”
He warned: “My concerns are for next week, or this week, if Tommy Robinson turns up, if we see another example of what happened on Thursday evening, we really have got to get this back under control.”
It followed violence outside a hotel in Epping, Essex after an asylum seeker was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl eight days after arriving in the UK.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has warned the political class in the UK doesn’t understand “just how close we are to civil disobedience on a vast scale in this country.”
The Reform UK leader said protestors in Epping were not political extremists. He said: “Do I understand how people in Epping people feel? You bet your life I do”.
His comments were echoed in a surprise intervention by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who told a meeting of the Cabinet this week that people have “real concerns”. Downing Street said the Deputy Prime Minister told colleagues that economic insecurity, the rapid pace of de-industrialisation, immigration and the impacts on local communities and public services, technological change and the amount of time people were spending alone online, and declining trust in institutions was having a profound impact on society.
She said it was incumbent on the government to acknowledge the real concerns people have and to deliver improvements to people’s lives in their communities.
And she said that seventeen of the eighteen places that saw the worst of the disorder last summer ranked at the top of the most deprived. While Britain was a successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith country, the government had to show it had a plan to address people’s concerns and provide opportunities for everyone to flourish, she said.