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Powys County Times
4 hours ago
- Powys County Times
Ministers braced for further legal challenges after High Court Epping decision
Ministers could face further legal challenges over asylum hotels after a council was granted a temporary injunction blocking migrants from being housed there. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage hailed the High Court decision in Epping as a 'victory' and said he hopes it 'provides inspiration to others across the country', while the shadow home secretary argued that residents have 'every right to object' to people being housed in their area. The 12 councils where Reform UK is the largest party are understood to be exploring the prospect of legal challenges following Tuesday's ruling. The Home Office had warned the judge that an injunction could 'interfere' with the department's legal obligations, and lawyers representing the hotel's owner argued it would set a 'precedent'. Epping Forest District Council had asked a judge to issue an interim injunction stopping migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel. The hotel has been at the centre of a series of protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker who was staying there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Reacting to the news, Mr Farage said that 'young, undocumented males who break into the UK illegally should NOT be free to walk the streets anywhere. They must be detained and deported'. 'I hope that Epping provides inspiration to others across the country,' he said. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch suggested that the migrants housed at the hotel 'need to be moved out of the area immediately', while her shadow home secretary Chris Philp said that 'residents should never have had to fight their own government just to feel safe in their own town'. He said: 'Local residents have every right to feel safe in their own streets and every right to object when their community is treated as a dumping ground.' A Labour source said the move by the Tory-led council, who did not challenge the Conservative government when they were housing asylum seekers, was politically motivated and authority leaders were 'scared' of Reform. Asked on Tuesday why the council did not previously take legal action, Epping Forest District Council leader Chris Whitbread told the PA news agency: 'It goes back to 2020 when we were in the pandemic originally, and at that time, it was used for young families, women and children, which is completely different to having it used for single males. 'Obviously, we have always raised our concerns with the Home Office, whether it be the previous government or this government, we raised our concerns.' Border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said the Government will 'continue working with local authorities and communities to address legitimate concerns'. She added: 'Our work continues to close all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament.' Meanwhile, the council leader for Borough of Broxbourne Council, Corina Gander, told PA the High Court's injunction set a 'massive precedent' and the council would gather 'more detail about what Epping has done' before considering a bid to shut down another hotel housing asylum seekers. Lawyers for the Home Office had warned the court that an injunction 'runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests'. Edward Brown KC also said the injunction would 'substantially interfere' with the Home Office's statutory duty in potentially avoiding a breach of the asylum seekers' human rights. Several protests and counter-protests have been held in the town since a then-resident at the hotel was accused of trying to kiss a teenage girl. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu has denied the charges against him and is due to stand trial later this month. A second man who resides at the hotel, Syrian national Mohammed Sharwarq, has separately been charged with seven offences, while several other men have been charged over disorder outside the hotel. In a ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Eyre granted the temporary injunction, but extended the time limit by which the hotel must stop housing asylum seekers to September 12. He also refused to give Somani Hotels Limited, the hotel's owner, the green light to challenge his ruling, but the company could still ask the Court of Appeal for the go-ahead to appeal against the judgment. Piers Riley-Smith, for the company, asked the judge to be allowed to appeal against the ruling, citing its 'wide-reaching ramifications'. He said that there was a 'compelling reason for the appeal to be heard', including the 'precedent that would be set' by the ruling and the impact that it could have 'on the wider strategy of the (Home Secretary) in relation to the housing of asylum seekers in hotels as part of meeting their statutory duties'.
Spectator
11 hours ago
- Spectator
Scottish Labour faces councillor crisis as Reform eyes up seats
It's not a good time to be in Scottish Labour. With nine months to go until the 2025 Holyrood election, the party is still trailing behind the SNP and, at times, Reform UK. And things aren't going well at a local level either: in recent months the party has suspended five councillors over inappropriate conduct and today one of these, Fife council's David Graham, has been jailed for 27 months after the 43-year-old was found guilty for sexually abusing a vulnerable teenager. Good heavens… A by-election will be held in Fife's Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages ward in due course – with opposition parties keeping tabs on a number of council seats after the suspension of more Labour councillors in Scotland. North Lanarkshire Labour councillor Andrew Duffy-Lawson was suspended last month over sexually inappropriate messaging. The former leader of Glasgow City council, Labour's Frank McAveety, was arrested and charged in April this year over fraud offences. Labour's Philip Braat has also been suspended from Glasgow City council, pleading guilty to a charge of stalking in May this year. And one of Scottish Labour's most prominent local authority leaders, Edinburgh City council's Cammy Day, was suspended – and resigned as council leader – in December 2024 amid allegations he had sent sexually explicit messages to Ukrainian refugees. (A subsequent police investigation cleared him of criminal wrongdoing and Day has since blasted the allegations as 'an orchestrated political campaign against me'.) Reform UK is keeping a close eye on these cases in the event of by-election being called. The party has fared well in Scottish council polls before – taking a quarter of the vote in both the Glasgow North East (23.6 per cent) and Clydebank Waterfront (26.2 per cent) elections this year. It hopes to translate this success to Holyrood: while both the SNP and the Scottish Tories are projected to lose seats at next year's Scottish parliament election, Reform is rather excited about its prospects. Some polls have predicted Nigel Farage's party could gain around 15 MSPs from a standing start at the expense of Scotland's unionist groups. 'The Tories are frightened,' a senior Reform source confided to Mr S, adding that Farage's group expected the Scottish Conservatives to fall from being the largest opposition party to 'single figures' next year. 'To put it mildly: they are s****ing themselves.' While senior Tories have suggested they could form an electoral pact with Reform next year, Farage's crowd say they are 'not interested in shackling ourselves to a Tory corpse'. Crikey. It's certainly quite the image… Labour's recent woes have instilled confidence in Farage's Scottish group – 'they are in a doom loop' – while current polling suggests the SNP won't win enough support to form a majority government. 'It'll prompt talks of a Labour-SNP coalition,' the Reform insider added, 'with some grand title, to have the purpose of effectively keeping Reform out.' Indeed, as Lucy Dunn wrote earlier this month, the bravado of some politicians is already starting to wear off. More pragmatic proposals to retain power are being floated, with some Nats are in favour of a 'grand coalition' with Scottish Labour in a bid to keep the party in government. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures…
The Sun
a day ago
- The Sun
Worried children ‘warned to avoid migrants while walking home from school' through hotspot areas
CHILDREN have been told to 'avoid migrant hot-spots' on their way home from school, senior Tory Robert Jenrick has claimed. He said mums told him that schools warned pupils to steer clear of certain areas — with the kids saying men at the hotels make them feel unsafe. The Shadow Justice Secretary spoke after visiting Epping, Essex — where protests flared in July when an Ethiopian asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl just days after arriving in Britain. Writing in The Sun, Mr Jenrick said: 'I spoke to teens, parents and grandparents — all rightly concerned about the safety of their community. 'These weren't racists or far-right thugs — they were mums in pink T-shirts with Union Jack bunting. "One mother told me how her daughter's school had written to her suggesting children avoid certain parts of town on their walk home. 'Her young daughter told me that men from the hotels loiter outside certain spots 'where they look at us'.' But Mr Jenrick faced questions himself after being pictured alongside Eddy Butler, a founder of the banned neo- Nazi terror group Combat 18. A Labour spokesman said: 'Robert Jenrick is a disgrace. Standing alongside someone with a long history of involvement with neo-Nazi terror groups, at a protest organised by a far-right party, shows just how far he and the Tories have sunk.' Asked about Eddy Butler, a source close to Mr Jenrick hit back: 'No idea who this guy is and Rob didn't speak to him. 'Rob just spoke with peaceful protesters.' Supermarket worker Dean Smith, 51, of Epping, Essex, has been warned he faces jail after admitting violent disorder outside a migrant hotel in the town. Mums & children dressed in pink peacefully protest outside controversial migrant hotel before yobs clash with cops 1 Asylum site vow DOWNING Street yesterday said small boat migrants should not be housed in the middle of towns and cities. It came after we told how Labour councillors in Havant, Hants, want them placed near shops, schools and GPs so they can 'integrate'. No10 agreed the asylum system was 'unfair on working people'. Protest marches against migrant hotels have included one in Canary Wharf, East London.
