Yvette Cooper under fire as high court ruling throws Migrant Hotel Plans into Chaos

Yvette Cooper has been told to call an emergency Cabinet meeting and come up with plans to deport every illegal migrant “upon arrival”, according to Chris Philp.

The Shadow Home Secretary said Ms Cooper must “resolve” the “crisis you have created” after a High Court decision on Tuesday left the future of more than 200 migrant hotels hanging in the balance.

The ruling came after Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary injunction to stop asylum seekers being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping. The case followed weeks of protests in the area after a local resident was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl, reported the Express.

Philp said Labour should be using former military bases and reopening asylum barges instead of pushing migrants into towns and cities. In a letter to Labour’s Home Secretary, he wrote: “Up and down the country people are furious about the number of illegal migrants being housed in hotels – which rose in the nine months following the election under Labour.

“People are also concerned that you are now moving people from hotels into apartments and other accommodation which is sorely needed by young people here who are struggling under this Labour government.”

He called on Ms Cooper to hold an emergency Cabinet meeting and commit that migrants at the Bell Hotel would not be moved into hotels, flats or social housing already stretched to the limit. He added: “The previous government established alternative accommodation on current or former military sites and an accommodation barge, which are all alternative options while deportation plans are put in place.”

The Bell Hotel was only reopened by Labour in April after a spike in small boat arrivals. It had been closed earlier in 2024. The Home Office had argued that blocking its use could derail asylum accommodation plans. Lawyers warned that other councils might now follow Epping’s example, sparking further legal action and piling even more pressure on the system. They also suggested the ruling could encourage more protests outside hotels.

Philp accused Labour of making the crisis worse by scrapping the Rwanda plan. “This migration crisis has happened because you made the catastrophic decision to cancel the Rwanda deterrent just before it was due to start, with no replacement plan,” he wrote. “The Rwanda scheme would have seen every illegal immigrant deported upon arrival and made it impossible to claim asylum if you entered the UK illegally.”

Meanwhile, ministers are racing to draw up backup plans for where to house asylum seekers if more hotels are forced to close. Security minister Dan Jarvis admitted the government was now looking at “a range of different contingency options” following the court’s ruling.

He said nobody saw hotels as a long-term answer, adding: “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.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said councils run by his party would explore their own legal challenges. He also called for “peaceful protests” outside migrant hotels to push other councils to act like Epping. Writing in The Telegraph, he said: “Now the good people of Epping must inspire similar protests around Britain… we now know that together we can win.”