Latest news with #MigrantHotelProtests
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Migrant hotel protests show British public has snapped, says Jenrick
Migrant hotel protests show the British public has 'snapped' over illegal Channel crossings, Robert Jenrick has said. The shadow justice secretary declared 'enough is enough' as he attended a protest on Sunday against the continued use of a hotel by asylum seekers in Epping. His visit came days after the BBC was forced to drop a Thought for the Day segment on the Today programme in which a guest accused the Tory frontbencher of xenophobia. Mr Jenrick joined around 100 protesters outside the Bell Hotel in Essex, which has been at the centre of weeks of protests amid concerns over community cohesion. In July, an Ethiopian asylum seeker staying at the hotel was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old schoolgirl days after arriving in Britain. A Syrian man, also living in the hotel, appeared in court last week charged with sexual assault after being accused of kissing a man on the neck. Mr Jenrick told The Telegraph: 'I think the patience of the British public has snapped. Frankly, it snapped a long time ago. People are absolutely sick to their back teeth of what's happening here and up and down the country and for good reason. 'In the last 100 days alone, there have been almost a dozen serious sexual offence allegations. This problem has been going on for six years – 170,000 people, mostly undocumented young men, have broken into our country. 'Each one of them is going to cost us half a million pounds if they stay. This has to come to an end, and I wanted to come here today to show my support for the fair-minded patriotic people here who are out protesting every weekend. 'They're right to do so. They're right to be angry and frustrated, and they're right to be demanding change, because this has got to stop. Enough is enough.' In a cordoned off lay-by, crowds gathered waving Union flags and the flag of St George to the sound of Sweet Caroline and other songs on a large karaoke speaker. Mr Jenrick said: 'I'm not just here to listen. I'm here to show my support because the people out here are doing the right thing. 'They are forcing the Government to listen and take action. We've got to make sure this comes to an end because the tragedy of the situation is we could stop this tomorrow.' Attended by families and a mixture of all ages, the crowd briefly turned hostile when a migrant returned to the hotel, prompting chants and jeers. Before protesters disperse, organisers conveyed plans for a national protest next Sunday. Outside the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf, London, on Sunday, protesters clashed with police following the arrest of a migrant last week. The man, who was living in the hotel, was arrested on suspicion of common assault after he allegedly burst into a blind woman's flat. He was said to have entered the house on Wednesday night after being followed by a group of men on the street who told him to 'go back to the hotel'. The Metropolitan Police imposed a Section 14 notice under the Public Order Act to prevent serious disruption and confirmed the majority of the protesters had left Canary Wharf by 5.30pm. There were a total of six arrests, including for breaching the s14 Public Order conditions, possession of Class B drugs and assault of an emergency worker. Among the protesters were a group of women all dressed in pink calling themselves the 'Pink Ladies'. Some of the group held signs that included: ' We are not far-Right but we're not far wrong. Don't gamble with our lives. Stop the boats.' Susan Hall, the leader of the City Hall Tories, was also in attendance. She told The Telegraph: 'Most of the people campaigning are local people who are concerned for their safety. They're not political activists, they are local people. 'That's why they asked me to come and speak. This was my first demonstration – this is the first time I've actually been to one, because I'm standing up for Londoners basically. 'Some people turned up with balaclavas and they were the ones that were trying to cause trouble. People are very, very angry about it and you can't blame them. That's why I was here today.' Also at the protest, however, were large groups of men in balaclavas, who were carrying England flags, coloured smoke flares, and signs that read: 'Stop the boats.' An estimated 32,000 asylum seekers are currently in about 200 hotels. This is down from a peak of around 400 in late 2023, but still costs the taxpayer up to £4m a day. The Government has pledged to axe the use of the hotels by the end of the current Parliament in 2029. Last week, Krish Kandiah, the founder of a refugee charity, used an appearance on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day segment to accuse Mr Jenrick of 'xenophobia'. Reflecting on the row, which saw the BBC forced to apologise, Mr Jenrick said: 'I thought it was a totally absurd allegation, and I'm not going to back down. 'The people I met here today are fair-minded, patriotic people who are just worried about their community, their families, their kids, and they deserve their voices to be heard.'
Telegraph
26-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Migrant hotel protests spread nationwide
Migrant hotel protests spread across Britain on Saturday as public anger grew over illegal immigration. In Norwich, hundreds of Union Flag-waving locals gathered outside the Brook Hotel to demand its closure. There were also protests in Leeds, Southampton and Nottinghamshire, with more planned for Sunday. The Nottinghamshire protest was mostly peaceful although there was a brief confrontation involving pro-migrant counter-demonstrators. Masked counter-protesters broke away from the main group – some of whom carried Stand Up to Racism placards – and walked into the middle of the crowd before being escorted away by police. Female protesters in Norwich told The Telegraph that the migrant hotel made them fear for their safety because two former residents had been jailed for sex offences in the past three months. Dan Tesfalul, an Eritrean, was sentenced to eight years for raping a woman in Norwich in April. In June, Rashid Al-Waeli, from Yemen, was sentenced to 20 months for child sex offences after he sent sexual messages to a paedophile hunter he believed was a 14-year-old boy. Sophie, a 20-year-old who declined to give her surname, said: ' It is absolutely petrifying. Go back to the early 2000s when women would walk home from the pub at night alone. 'I would not even think about doing that now. You just don't know who is hiding in a bush and it is getting more and more common. It's scary.' Louis Bunn, 26, waved a Union Flag as he said he was 'so scared' for the future of his six-year-old daughter because of the hotel. 'I am not fascist,' he said. 'I am not far-Right. I used to vote for the Labour Party. 'But please, all of us need to come together. All of us British – white, brown, black, whatever colour you are, whatever faith you are, whatever race you are – you need to come down here and protect our f---ing children, because this is getting mental.' At the protest crowds chanted 'Keir Starmer is a w----r' as cars beeped their horns as they drove by. The demonstration was led by armed forces veterans who had camped overnight outside the Brook Hotel. Ian Curry, who served in Northern Ireland and Kuwait in the Royal Marines from 1987 to 1999, said the public needed to 'wake up' and demand the closure of the hotels. ' Women and children are not safe in this country,' the 58-year-old said. 'This is what the demonstration was for. Where's all the money for these hotels coming from? It's coming from us.' Callum Creak, 23, added: 'You just hear horror story after horror story. It's despicable stuff and surely it's right to support shutting the hotels down. It should be a bipartisan issue.' Protests also took place in Leeds, West Yorkshire, on Saturday as demonstrators shouted 'back in your rubber dinghies' to asylum seekers in the Britannia Hotel. Demonstrations were also held outside the hotel on Friday night. In addition to the protests in Bournemouth, Southampton and Sutton-in-Ashfield, demonstrations are also planned on Sunday in Epping in Essex, Wolverhampton and Altrincham in Cheshire. Police have made 18 arrests and charged seven people in connection with successive demonstrations at Epping, Disorder first erupted there earlier in July after an asylum seeker was charged with allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl.. Epping Forest district council passed a motion on Thursday to call on the Government 'to immediately and permanently close' the hotel 'for the purposes of asylum processing'. Protests also took place this week outside the four-star Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf, to which the Home Office plans to send asylum seekers. Some 32,000 asylum seekers are being housed in around 210 hotels across Britain, according to the latest Home Office data from March 2025. A record 24,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far in 2025, up 50 per cent. A spokesman for Norfolk Constabulary said it had arrested two people on Saturday on suspicion of affray following protests at the Brook Hotel earlier in the week.
