Labour may have walked into political trap over housing asylum seekers in hotels

Has the authorities conscionable walked into a elephantine governmental elephant trap by attempting to reverse the Epping edifice ruling?

Already connected the backmost ft aft a justice ordered the Bell Hotel to beryllium emptied of asylum seekers, the Home Office is present being attacked for trying to entreaty that decision.

"The authorities isn't listening to the nationalist oregon to the courts," said Tory shadiness location caput Chris Philp.

The authorities is surely difficult.

Government sources are live to that fact, adjacent accusing the Tory-led Epping Council of "playing politics" by launching the ineligible situation successful the archetypal place.

The information Labour councils are present besides considering claims undermines that somewhat.

After all, the enactment did committedness to unopen each asylum edifice by the adjacent election.

Figures retired this week showed an summation successful the fig of migrants successful hotels since the Tories near office.

And now, an effort to support radical successful a edifice that's become a flashpoint for anger.

That's wherefore ministers are trying to emphasise that closing the Bell Hotel is simply a substance of when, not if.

"We've made a committedness that we volition adjacent each of the asylum hotels by the extremity of this parliament, but we request to bash that successful a managed and ordered way", said the information curate Dan Jarvis.

The contiguous occupation for the Home Office is the aforesaid 1 that caused hotels to beryllium utilized successful the archetypal place.

There are vanishingly fewer accommodation options.

Labour has moved distant from utilizing aged subject sites.

That's contempt 1 RAF basal successful Essex - which Sir Keir Starmer had promised to adjacent - seeing an summation successful the fig of migrants being housed.

Back successful June, the migration curate told MPs that medium-sized sites similar disused operation blocks, aged teacher grooming colleges oregon redundant pupil accommodation could each beryllium used.

Until 2023, regular residential accommodation was relied on.

Read much from Sky News:
Rise successful migrants staying successful hotels
Town 'changed' by immigration
Explainer: Where tin migrants stay?

But getting clasp of much flats and houses could beryllium practically and politically difficult, fixed shortages of homes and agelong assembly waiting lists.

All of this is wherefore erstwhile ineligible challenges made by councils person yet failed.

The authorities has a ineligible work to location asylum seekers astatine hazard of destitution, truthful judges person tended to determine that blocking disconnected the edifice enactment runs the hazard of causing ministers to enactment unlawfully.

So to instrumentality to the erstwhile question.

Yes, the authorities whitethorn good person walked into a governmental trap here.

But it astir apt had nary choice.