Keir Starmer was facing a Labour revolt on Wednesday night as councils prepared to battle the Home Office over migrant hotels.
Town hall leaders across the country said they are already looking to follow Epping Forest District Council and take legal action to prevent small boat arrivals being placed in local hotels.
At least four Labour-run authorities were understood to be studying the ruling and considering their own course, posing a new headache for the Prime Minister.
Kemi Badenoch wrote to all leaders of Tory-led authorities on Wednesday night, pledging her support for any legal action they take, while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was under pressure to rule out using private rental housing as an alternative to hotels.
Home Office minister Dan Jarvis admitted on Wednesday that he could not say where displaced migrants will end up following Tuesday’s landmark High Court ruling, which ordered the Bell Hotel in Epping to be closed within weeks.
In a letter to Ms Cooper, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘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.’
Around 32,000 migrants are currently placed in 210 hotels around the country, at a cost to the taxpayer of nearly £6m a day, with others in the private rental sector including HMOs (houses of multiple occupation), which are often used by students and young people.
On Wednesday night, writing to all Conservative-controlled councils pledging her support to them fighting hotels in their area, Ms Badenoch accused Labour of ‘trying to ram through such asylum hotels without consultation and without proper process.’
‘They are treating local residents and local councils with contempt,’ she said.
Those councils seeking to emulate Epping, which was granted its injunction on a planning technicality, could coordinate their actions, with at least one already contacting the Essex authority asking for help with its own case.
Paula Basnett, the Labour leader of Wirral Council, confirmed she was refusing to toe the party line and had asked officers to seek ‘urgent legal advice’ to see if the local authority could oppose government plans for the Holiday Inn Express in Hoylake.
The hotel was embroiled in controversy in 2022 when RNLI volunteers on a training day were kicked out midway through their stay to make room for asylum seekers.
More recently it was a target for protests over plans to house single male migrants, rather than families.
Ms Basnett said: ‘The situation in Wirral with the continued use of hotels as asylum accommodation is unacceptable.
‘Recent legal developments in other parts of the country have shown that councils can successfully challenge the Government’s approach. In light of this, I have instructed that urgent legal advice be sought on whether Wirral Council can pursue similar action to protect our communities.
‘Wirral has always shown compassion towards those in genuine need.
‘But compassion does not mean central government can impose poorly thought-through, short-term solutions that undermine local communities and ignore democratic accountability.’
In Labour-run Tamworth, council leader Carol Dean confirmed that the council was considering challenging the use of a hotel in the town, which was the focus for violent disorder during last summer’s riots.
She said: ‘I understand the strong feelings within our community regarding the use of the Holiday Inn to house those seeking asylum, and I want to reassure residents that we are listening to their concerns and taking them seriously.
‘The situation at Epping Forest represents a potentially important legal precedent, and we are carefully assessing what this might mean for our circumstances here in Tamworth.’
And spokespeople for fellow Labour-led authorities in Trafford, Greater Manchester, and Rushmoor, Hampshire, did not rule out taking similar action.
Nigel Farage said Reform UK was exploring the prospect of legal action on the councils where his party have responsibility for planning permission.
Corina Gander, Tory leader of Broxbourne Borough Council in Hertfordshire, said her council chief executive ‘was in contact’ with officials from Epping Forest to better understand the ruling.
‘We are not the right place for asylum hotels, so we are looking at the procedure that we could follow,’ she said.
In Lincolnshire, Craig Leyland, the leader of Tory-run East Lindsey District Council, said it stands ‘strongly against the use of hotels in our district by the Home Office for those seeking asylum’.
Mr Leyland added: ‘I have asked officers to investigate and understand this case and will take appropriate action once we understand if there are any similarities that we can act on.’
And the leader of Tory-run Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council said the authority was looking at legal action, even though it only had one asylum hotel.
He said: ‘The Epping judgement was very encouraging, I think it pleased a lot of people.
‘People might say: you don’t have a massive problem with asylum seekers, but the point is we don’t want a problem in the future.
‘There just isn’t the infrastructure here, and we don’t want to end up like Epping with lots of asylum hotels.
‘Successive governments have let it get out of hand, people have had enough of it. So we are looking at what we can do.’
Richard Biggs, Conservative leader of Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, added: ‘We’ve got the legal team looking at it at the moment, the planning officers are having an input into that obviously, and when I get the report we’ll make a decision.’
Other authorities have ruled out legal action, with the leader of Labour-run Newcastle City Council saying she was ‘confident’ the council could end the use of hotels without going to court.
Karen Kilgour, who sits as an independent, said: ‘We recognise that people seeking asylum include families, women, and children, many of whom have faced unimaginable trauma.
‘Newcastle has a proud history of offering sanctuary, and we stand ready to play our part – but it must be done in a way that works for our city and supports the dignity and wellbeing of those who come here.’
Brighton and Hove City Council, meanwhile, has said that as a ‘proud city of sanctuary’ it will continue to welcome and support asylum seekers.
On Wednesday night, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick called on authorities to follow Epping Forest’s example and seek a court injunction.
In a video message announcing the creation of a movement called ‘Lawyers for Borders’, he said: ‘Every patriotic council, whether Conservative, Reform, whatever, should follow Epping’s lead and seek an injunction.
‘And if you are a council or a community group and you need our help, contact my office. If you’re a lawyer and you want to join the fight, contact me.’
On Wednesday, security minister Mr Jarvis said the government was ‘looking at a range of different contingency options’ about what to do with those in asylum hotels, but refused to provide any further details.
He told Times Radio: ‘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.’
Epping Forest District Council asked a judge to issue an interim injunction stopping migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel after it had been at the centre of protests in recent weeks.
The council argued the owners of the establishment did not have the requisite planning permission for the building to be used as full-time housing.
The demonstrations came after an Ethiopian migrant at the hotel was charged with three sexual assaults, including on a 14-year-old girl, in two days.
He denies the charge and is due to stand trial later this month.
A full hearing will take place at a later date and council leader Chris Whitbread said his authority would ‘find the money’ to battle any appeal lodged by the Home Office.
