An Epping woman who took part in protests against The Bell Hotel being used to house asylum seekers has rejected accusations concerned parents are really “far right thugs”. Lindsey Thompson was among a group of women dubbed “pink ladies” for wearing pink clothing as they attended demonstrations in the small Essex town.
She said protests began after locals spotted “strange” men beginning to appear in the town, which she acknowledged was an “odd” observation to make. The mum said there was no openness or transparency from officials about who was entering Epping and locals heard The Bell Hotel was only housing men.
She told the Telegraph’s Daily T podcast: “So there was an unease, as a parent, and then we got a letter from the school saying, please be vigilant, ask the children to be vigilant – especially the girls – when they’re coming home from school as they are being approached by men in the high street.”
Ms Thompson said she spoke to her 17-year-old daughter who said the only encounter she had had was with a group of men in an alleyway who would sit and watch the youngsters as they passed by. She then described seeing a man in a local M&S filling a trolley then leaving the shop without paying.
The Epping local suggested that fears from school combined with reports on social media of grown men drinking on the local cricket pitch and her chats with her daughter had raised her own concerns.
Ms Thompson said protests then began outside the hotel, but the challenge for her were the “rumblings” that the demonstrations were “far right thuggery”.
She said: “Us parents just thought, we’re not far right thugs we’re just normal mums and dads. It’s just normal people feeling really scared because we don’t know who they are. They might be lovely, but the fact that we don’t know… You put them right in our town, next to our school, next to the tennis club [where] the girls get dropped off in their tennis skirts.”
Ms Thompson said one of the protests descended into chaos after police escorted left wing activists to The Bell. She alleged the counter-protesters had been behind the trouble.
She accused some of them of chanting, “F*** your kids”, at local parents who had gathered outside the hotel. The local mum went on to compare the police escorting counter-protesters to the site of the protest to taking Milwall supporters to a West Ham barbecue.
There were a series of demonstrations outside the Bell Hotel after an asylum seeker was charged with an offence in July. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was charged with sexual assault after allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl. He denies the charges.
A number of people were arrested after peaceful protests descended into chaos in the town. Some of those arrested are from Epping and have since been charged with offences including violent disorder and criminal damage.
One of the initial protests sparked a political row, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage calling for Essex Police’s Chief Constable, Ben-Julian Harrington, to resign over claims officers transported left-wing protesters to the scene. Mr Harrington had denied the claim and refused to stand down.
Ms Thompson said locals donned pink T-shirts in a bid to counter a narrative which was spreading that those involved in the protests were far right and far left. She said locals wanted to show the world they were just ordinary people who didn’t feel safe with men living among them whom they didn’t know.
The use of hotels in towns and cities across the country has become a flashpoint for community tensions in recent weeks. Some 32,000 asylum seekers live in 210 hotels across the UK. The Government has pledged to end their use by 2029.
Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary injunction by the High Court on Tuesday which means asylum seekers must be removed from the Bell Hotel by September 12.
Ministers are now bracing for further legal challenges from councils. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp on Thursday named three Conservative councils which are considering legal action in a bid to shut down asylum hotels in their areas.
