Asked on the radio what should happen to asylum seekers accommodated in a Hertfordshire hotel, if a court were to rule that they must be moved out, the Conservative leader of Broxbourne Council, Corina Gander, said flatly: “That’s the government’s problem.” Ms Gander had indicated that she would seek to challenge the use of the hotel following Epping council’s successful legal precedent. Other local authorities will surely follow suit.
As Britain’s immigration debate turns ever more ugly, that is a problem for the nation as well as the government. Far-right groups were energetically involved in this summer’s protests outside the Essex hotel, which followed the arrest of an Ethiopian asylum seeker for alleged sexual offences. The high court ruling has handed them a major opportunity that they will certainly seize. Home Office lawyers were stating the obvious when warning that Mr Justice Eyre’s decision to grant the council’s shutdown request “ran the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests”.
