Reform considers legal challenges against asylum hotels
Reform UK could take the government to court to prevent migrants being housed in areas where it now controls the local council, party chairman Zia Yusuf told the BBC.
Yusuf said his party had pledged to "resist" housing asylum seekers in Reform-controlled areas and it would use "every instrument of power available", including judicial reviews, to fulfil its pledge.
The Home Office is responsible for housing adult asylum seekers and while councils can object, they have little power to stop it.
Reform gained more than 600 seats and took control of 10 local authorities in Thursday's local elections.
Asked how Reform could fulfil its pledge to voters, given that contracts to house asylum seekers in hotels were drawn up between the Home Office and accommodation providers, Yusuf said the party was "realistic" about the challenge.
"The levers of power at a local level pale in comparison to the levers of power at Westminster," he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
But he said "those levers of power will be pulled with all our might by Reform councillors," adding: "There are things you can do, there are judicial reviews, there are injunctions... things around planning, budget allocation."
He told Laura Kuenssberg: "A lot of these hotels... you suddenly turn them into something else which is essentially a hostel that falls foul of any number of regulations - that's what our teams of lawyers are exploring at the moment."
Asked if Reform UK's policy was to house migrants in tents, as the party's newly elected Greater Lincolnshire mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns suggested, Yusuf said: "That's what France does."
He added: "We will be publishing a plan to deport everybody who is currently in this country illegally in our first term of government.
"We will publish that plan in the coming weeks and you'll see the full detail."
In 2021, Labour-controlled Coventry City Council and six other local authorities in the West Midlands took legal action against the Home Office over its asylum-seeker dispersal policy.
The policy involves moving asylum seekers to different council areas across the country to help spread the cost of supporting them.
But the legal action, known as a judicial review, was withdrawn after the Home Office promised "a new, fairer asylum dispersal system".
The government says it is determined to end the use of asylum hotels over time and cut the "unacceptably high" costs of accommodation.
But figures from March show almost 40,000 migrants are still housed in hotels.
In his Laura Kuenssberg interview, Zia Yusuf also said that Reform councillors "will cut waste", and will target spending on diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Challenged on how much money this would save, he said places like Lincolnshire County Council, which Reform won control of from the Conservatives, "do spend considerable money on DEI initiatives".
He said Reform UK will "send teams in, task forces" and that "we're now going to have access to the contracts and we're going to make these changes."
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Reform had done well in Thursday's polls because Nigel Farage was "expressing the feeling of frustration that a lot of people around the country are feeling".
But she said he does not have a record in government and "now he is going to be running some councils - we'll see how that goes".
Asked if Farage could be the next prime minister, she said "anything is feasible", noting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had won re-election this week after trailing in the polls.
But she added: "My job is to make sure that he [Farage] does not become prime minister because he does not have the answers to the problems the country is facing."
Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he now treats Reform UK as a "serious opposition force".
He told Sky News: "It's not yet clear whether at the next general election it will be Reform or the Conservatives that are Labour's main challengers, but we've got to take that threat seriously."
"In that spirit, I think Reform does deserve more air time and scrutiny of their policies."
What might Reform do with its newly-won power?
Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Has Nigel finally shown he can be a team player?
Court intrigue always makes good copy, and for that reason we journalists should be sure to add to any speculation about Zia Yusuf's dramatic yo-yoing in and out of Reform UK this week an important qualifier: his proffered explanation, that it was a misjudgement due to 'exhaustion', is perfectly plausible. Politics can be a gruelling business at the best of times, especially when trying to bootstrap a new party into a national force – not to mention a culture shock for people more used to the world of business. Yet if speculation was rife about Yusuf's spectacular (if short-lived) departure, it was in large part because Nigel Farage has in his long career in politics proven time and again that for all his strengths as a campaigner, he has a critical weakness: an apparently chronic inability to work with others and build institutions that last. No potential leadership rival lasts long. In 2015, he recommended Suzanne Evans as his replacement as leader of Ukip – only for the party to end up 'rejecting his resignation', leaving his rival's wings well and truly clipped. A year later, Diane James had the privilege of being Farage's successor for less than three weeks before he was back once again as interim leader (although he did then step back for good). Most recently, we have seen Reform UK struggle to coordinate even a small number of MPs, most obviously with the expulsion of Rupert Lowe (single-handedly responsible for almost half the recorded parliamentary work of Reform's entire caucus). But before that, Farage almost wrecked his party's alliance with the Northern Irish TUV by endorsing his old friend, the DUP's Ian Paisley Jr, against TUV leader Jim Allister – despite Allister having the Reform logo all over his leaflets. Awkwardly, Allister went on to win North Antrim. Things were eventually smoothed over, but the deal had to be renegotiated, and the cost of that may have been huge: had the Commons authorities accepted Allister as counting as a Reform candidate at the election, the party would have had six MPs – the magic number needed to unlock hundreds of thousands of pounds more in public funding each and every year. The history of the Faragist parties tells the same story. If Yusuf has his work cut out building a national campaigning force from scratch, part of the reason is that Farage allowed decades of effort to fall by the wayside when he abandoned Ukip. At the 2015 election, Ukip came second in a hundred seats; it had also started to make a breakthrough in local councils, albeit with many of the same teething problems now facing Reform. It even won seven seats in the Welsh Assembly in 2016. Farage's ability to snap his fingers and call a new party out of the earth, as he did with the Brexit Party, is undoubtedly impressive. But it reset the clock on all that organisational effort. In Europe, Right-wing parties successfully challenging the status quo tend to have a decade of work behind them: Spain's Vox and Germany's AfD were both founded in 2013; Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia in 2012. Patching things up with Yusuf removes one big question mark about the long-term viability of Reform UK. But only one. Back-room organisation is necessary but not sufficient for sustained success, and Farage has yet to prove he can work with other politicians, especially ones of the calibre to succeed him one day. Until he does, Reform will remain a one-man band – and it's hard to build the party of the future around a man in his sixties who has already, more than once, tried to leave politics behind.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ex-Reform UK chair returns to party after two days
Zia Yusuf says he is returning to the populist Reform UK party, two days after quitting as its chair, blaming his abrupt resignation on exhaustion from the job. Yusuf, a businessman who is not an MP himself, resigned on Thursday hours after a row with a Reform parliamentarian over her call for a ban on the burqa, the full-length garment worn by some Muslim women. Yusuf became Reform chair last year, tasked by party leader Nigel Farage with professionalising the party. Over the last 24 hours I have received a huge number of lovely and heartfelt messages from people who have expressed their dismay at my resignation, urging me to 11 months of working as a volunteer to build a political party from scratch, with barely a single… — Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) June 7, 2025 While it has since overtaken Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour in the polls and leads across the United Kingdom, the exit of several senior figures has raised questions over whether Farage can hold together a team ahead of the next election, expected in 2029. "After 11 months of working as a volunteer to build a political party from scratch, with barely a single day off, my tweet was a decision born of exhaustion," Yusuf said on X, referring to the earlier post announcing his resignation. Yusuf said he would focus on a new role overseeing an Elon Musk-inspired "UK DOGE team" within Reform that the party hopes will reduce wasteful spending at the councils it controls after its victory in a series of local elections last month. I am delighted that @ZiaYusufUK will head up Reform UK's DOGE will also assist the party with policy, fundraising and media appearances. Zia will continue to be an important part of the team we are building to fight and win the next general election. — Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) June 7, 2025 The party has seen departures from its upper ranks before. One of its MPs, Rupert Lowe, was suspended by the party in March over allegations including threats of physical violence against Yusuf. No charges were brought against Lowe, who denies the allegations. And in November its deputy leader Ben Habib quit, citing "fundamental differences" with Farage. Farage said Yusuf would assist Reform with policy, fundraising and media appearances in addition to his work on local councils. "Zia will continue to be an important part of the team we are building to fight and win the next general election," Farage wrote on X.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Unions pile pressure on Reeves to avoid cuts and impose wealth taxes
Labour's biggest financial backers are piling pressure on Rachel Reeves to avoid making cuts at next week's spending review and instead pursue wealth taxes to fund Britain's public services. Polling commissioned by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) reveals a majority the public (54 per cent) back taxes on big corporations and the most wealthy individuals as an alternative means of raising revenue. Just 28 per cent oppose the move. TUC general secretary Paul Nowak urged the government to 'stay on track' and build on the 'positive start it made at last year's budget by providing sustained funding for our public services and infrastructure' – warning that people are 'fed up with a system where those with the broadest shoulders don't pull their weight'. It comes after deputy prime minister Angela Rayner pressed Ms Reeves to consider eight wealth taxes rather than try to impose cuts on departments. The civil war within the government over next Wednesday's spending review has seen holdouts from Ms Rayner's Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as well as Yvette Cooper's Home Office. The chancellor is expected to unveil a swathe of spending cuts as she attempts to walk the tightrope between delivering on the party's election promises and sticking within the bounds of her self-imposed fiscal rules. The TUC has also joined criticism of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) over whether its flawed predictions are having a negative impact on spending plans. The OBR produces forecasts twice a year alongside the autumn budget and spring statement, which are used by the government to make fiscal policy decisions. But Mr Nowak said it is now 'time to review the role of the OBR and its fiscal assumptions to give the UK greater flexibility to invest in our future', with the TUC arguing that short-term changes in forecasts should not be driving long-term government decision making. Mr Nowak said next week's spending review 'can be the next key step in the government's plan to rebuild Britain and deliver industrial renewal' as 'communities are still crying out for meaningful change after more than a decade of Tory austerity and neglect'. 'The global outlook is challenging, but leaving our decimated public services without sufficient investment would risk both future growth and public trust,' he added. 'The message from voters is clear. They want the government to protect and rebuild our public services,' he said. 'If that means asking the wealthiest to pay more, the public are behind it. People are fed up with a system where those with the broadest shoulders don't pull their weight.' The warning from the TUC – which represents 5.3 million people in 47 member unions – will pile pressure on Labour, a party which has historically been heavily dependent on the funding it receives from trade unions. In 2024, Labour declared £2.4m from union backers – significantly less than the £5m it declared from unions in 2019 after Unite refused to endorse the party's manifesto. The poll of more than 2,000 adults, conducted by Hold Sway for the TUC, shows there is widespread frustration at the current amount of tax paid by the wealthiest in Britain. Nearly 6 in 10 (59 per cent) think the wealthiest do not pay their fair share – including 74 per cent of Conservative-to-Labour switchers and 72 per cent of those strongly considering switching from Labour to Reform. More than half (56 per cent) think big businesses do not pay their fair share of tax, while just 31 per cent think they do. The polling showed that two-thirds (67 per cent) of voters back an annual wealth tax for estates above £10m, including 88 per cent of Tory-to-Labour switchers; and 81 per cent of Labour voters now strongly considering Reform. Meanwhile, more than six in 10 (63 per cent) back a windfall tax on banks – including 85 per cent of Tory-to-Labour switchers, and 78 per cent of those Labour voters now strongly considering Reform. Some 50 per cent back raising capital gains tax, including 75 per cent of Tory to Labour switchers, and 67 per cent of those Labour voters that are now strongly considering Reform. Just 26 per cent oppose a capital gains tax hike. The Hold Sway poll surveyed 2,000 adults in Great Britain online between 30 May and 2 June. A HM Treasury spokesperson said: 'At the Budget, the chancellor increased investment in Britain's security, health and economy. We did that at the same time as protecting taxes on working people. This week, the chancellor will announce further plans to invest in Britain's renewal.'
