Nigel Farage's migrant hotel demand slammed by husband of MP murdered by far right

Daily Mirror

6 hours ago

Brendan Cox, whose Labour MP wife Jo was murdered in 2016, warned Nigel Farage's call for protests outside hotels across Britain 'will intimidate residents, stretch the police and could lead to violence'
Nigel Farage has been slammed for stoking tensions in communities across Britain as ministers braced for a wave of asylum hotel legal fights.
Home Office plans were thrown into turmoil after the High Court granted a temporary injunction on Tuesday preventing migrants being housed in the Bell Hotel in Epping. Several local authorities indicated they plan to mount their own legal challenges demanding hotels are closed in their areas.
Mr Farage said he hoped demonstrations in the Essex town - which saw violent clashes outside the hotel in recent weeks - would "inspire similar protests around Britain". He was accused of "preying on people's anger, fear and desperation" to divide communities after calling for people to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations.
Brendan Cox, co-founder of campaign group Survivors Against Terror told The Mirror: 'Farage needs to decide if he wants to be a serious politician or is more interested in being a rabble rouser."
Mr Cox, whose Labour MP wife Jo was murdered by a far-right terrorist in 2016, continued: "There is a legitimate public debate about the use of hotels for accommodating asylum seekers - calling for protests that he knows full well will intimidate residents, stretch the police and could lead to violence is not the way to address it.'
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said "the very worst politicians" try to drive people apart in a swipe at the Reform leader. He said the Government is committed to closing all asylum hotels and is drawing up contingency plans following the Epping ruling.
Mr Jarvis said ministers are clear that hotels are not appropriate places to house migrants, while experts said a Tory "failure of public policy" had led to them being used in the first place.
There are currently around 200 hotels housing migrants across the UK. At the end of March there were 32,345 living in them - down from over 56,000 under the Tories in September 2023.
It was also down 15% from the end of December, when the total was 38,079. New figures are expected today(THUR) showing numbers in hotels at the end of June.
At its peak, hotels were costing more than £9million a day after the Conservatives lost control of the asylum system. The Government has vowed to end the use of these hotels completely by the end of the Parliament in 2029.
Home Office lawyers had warned that granting an injunction for the Bell Hotel 'could put Britain's asylum hotel scheme at risk of falling apart'. But Mr Justice Eyre backed a legal challenge by Epping Forest District Council, saying owner Somani Hotels had not followed planning law.
Mr Farage said 12 councils where Reform are the biggest party would do "everything in their power to follow Epping's lead". And Tory-led Broxbourne Council said it will seek legal advice "as a matter of urgency" about whether it "could take a similar action" over a hotel in Cheshunt.
Immigration campaigner Zoe Gardner accused Mr Farage of calling for "more racist protests to terrorise asylum seekers". And she added: "The man has no shame, literally calling for people to be hounded out of communities by mobs."
Louise Calvey, executive director at charity Asylum Matters, told The Mirror: 'It's appalling to see members of our Parliament egging on violent disorder on our streets." She hit out at Mr Farage and senior Tory Robert Jenrick, who joined a demonstration in Epping despite his own record as immigration minister.
Ms Calvey said: "People are right to be angry about asylum policy: our system is broken because the previous government stopped asylum decision-making.
"It's not OK to take that anger out on the people subjected to these appalling policies, it's not OK to take that anger out on our communities that want to live peacefully with refugees in them.
"For leading politicians to create the policies that brought us here, and then misdirect that anger on refugee families is an outrage." She warned that people who fled hostility in their homelands would be forced to move on because "an angry mob has been given its way".
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, told The Mirror: "Politicians of all parties should take care to talk about these issues responsibly. We've seen how protests outside hotels terrify people who've already fled war in places like Sudan and Afghanistan, some even feared for their lives when a hotel was attacked and set on fire last summer.
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"Most people in Britain are fair-minded and compassionate, but their concerns are being exploited by far-right groups with their own agendas.
"The real problem is a broken asylum system that leaves people stuck in hotels at huge public cost. What we need is faster, fairer decisions and safe housing in communities, so refugees can work, study and rebuild their lives."
Mr Solomon continued: "We urge all political leaders to reject toxic narratives and speak with the compassion, responsibility and integrity the public deserves.'
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Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer told The Mirror: ' Nigel Farage 's role in whipping up unrest around asylum hotels is absolutely shameful. He is a millionaire preying on people's anger, fear and desperation to divide communities, stoke tensions and put people's safety at risk."
She accused the Reform leader of "creating a terrifying environment of hostility" and said politicians have a "moral duty" to stand up to him
It came after Mr Farage wrote in The Telegraph: "Now the good people of Epping must inspire similar protests around Britain." And he added: "Let's hold peaceful protests outside the migrant hotels and put pressure on local councils to go to court to try and get the illegal immigrants out; we now know that together we can win."
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Home Office minister Mr Jarvis said: "I think the important point to make is that nobody really thinks that hotels are a sustainable location to accommodate asylum seekers. That's precisely why the Government has made a commitment that, by the end of this Parliament, we would have phased out the use of them."
Under Boris Johnson the use of hotels for asylum seekers started to grow. At the time the Tories insisted it was temporary, blaming Covid, rising small boat crossings and a backlog of unresolved cases.
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In March 2020 there were around 1,200 people in hotels. By the summer this had reached 4,400, and it had soared to 9,500 by October that year. In March 2023, when Rishi Sunak was PM, the number was 47,518, peaking at 56,042 in the autumn.
Imran Hussain, from the Refugee Council, said: "Nobody thinks asylum seekers should be kept in hotels while their case is being assessed. It's very expensive. It's not good for the asylum seekers. It's isolating. It's an isolating experience I think even before the protests, with the protests it's incredibly terrifying for people.
"And of course as we've seen for local communities, there's a lot of tension, some of which is being exploited by people on the far- right. So no one thinks it's a good idea."
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He said a "failure of public policy" led to the Tories resorting to using asylum hotels as a massive backlog swelled to a peak of 175,000 in 2023.
Mr Hussain said: "For 20 odd years that we've supported asylum seekers through, the system worked perfectly well. We had accommodation for people without using hotels. But the last few years there's been a huge backlog of cases that's grown up because the previous government (the Tories) stopped making decisions on cases because it wanted to send people to Rwanda.
"The backlog has meant the accommodation that was existing was full and people have had to use hotels."
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Protesters cracked open champagne bottles following the High Court ruling. Callum Barker, 21, said: 'I'm ecstatic; I haven't stopped smiling. For five years, this hotel's blighted us. Everyone's had their complaints and reservations about it and I'm really glad to see it gone.
'I think nationally there will be more protests; I hope so. We want people to get out into their communities, get rid of these hotels."
But Epping solicitor Charlotee, 33, told Runcorn and Widnes World: 'I think it's kicking the can down the road because where are they going to go?
'Personally, I have lived here for four years and I've never had an issue, never noticed any problems with any asylum seekers living in the hotel a mile away."
And Michael Barnes, 61, said: 'The question is, where does it go from here? I don't love them on my doorstep but, in fairness, they've got to live somewhere. I don't think it's all of them, it's just the minority of them that get up to no good.'