In a ruling last week, Mr Justice Eyre granted Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) an interim injunction after the authority claimed that Somani Hotels had breached planning rules by using the Bell as accommodation for asylum seekers.
But ministers were criticised for challenging the move, and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Local communities should not pay the price for Labour’s total failure on illegal immigration.
“Keir Starmer has shown that he puts the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British people who just want to feel safe in their towns and communities.”
She called on Conservative councils to continue to seek similar injunctions against asylum hotels in their areas.
After the ruling last week, several councils run by Labour, Conservatives and Reform had announced their intention to consider similar legal action.
Senior Conservative James Cleverly suggested that the Home Office was cutting local people out of the loop, adding: “I’m sure that Yvette Cooper and the Home Office officials think this is good news. It really isn’t.”
Reacting to the ruling, Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle said the Government was committed to closing all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament, but added that it appealed against the High Court ruling so that hotel use can be ended in a “controlled and orderly way”.
Three Court of Appeal judges ruled in favour of Somani Hotels and the Home Office on Friday, saying that Mr Justice Eyre’s ruling was “seriously flawed in principle”.
Reading a summary of the ruling overturning the injunction, Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, said: “We conclude that the judge made a number of errors in principle, which undermine this decision.”
He continued: “The judge’s approach ignores the obvious consequence that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system.”
He added that such an injunction “may incentivise” other councils to take steps similar to those taken by EFDC.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also criticised the decision, claiming the Government had “used ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) against the people of Epping”.
He added: “Illegal migrants have more rights than the British people under Starmer.”
Home Office lawyers had argued that the Government’s duties towards asylum seekers under the ECHR were “fundamentally different” from EFDC’s planning responsibilities.
But Lord Justice Bean rejected this line of argument, saying in his summary: “Any argument in this particular context about a hierarchy of rights is in our view unattractive.”
Overturning the High Court’s grant of a temporary injunction, the judges cited concerns that it could incentivise “disorderly” and “unlawful” protests around asylum accommodation; the council’s delay in bringing its legal challenge, described as “procedurally unfair”; and the “risk of injustice” if residents were removed from the hotel ahead of the full hearing on the matter in October.
Epping councillor Holly Whitbread told the PA news agency the local authority would use that hearing to push for a permanent injunction against using the hotel as asylum accommodation.
Describing the ruling as “deeply disappointing”, she said felt “utterly let down and betrayed by the Government” and added: “The council will continue to fight this.”
Others welcomed the ruling. Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais, said it had “made it clear that violent protest, and in many cases overt racism, is not a fast-track route for the far right to attack the rights of people seeking sanctuary in this country”.
Epping’s legal challenge followed a series of protests outside the hotel amid accusations of sexual assault regarding two men being housed there.
Some protests saw clashes with police, resulting in six men being charged with violent disorder, two of whom have pleaded guilty.
Separately, two residents of the Bell Hotel have been charged with sexual assault.
Following the Court of Appeal ruling on Friday, protesters began to gather outside the Bell Hotel.
A small number of demonstrators carried St George and Union flags while police officers guarded the hotel entrance – which is gated off with metal fencing.
Epping Forest District Council leader Christopher Whitbread said: “We don’t want to see some violent scenes around the hotel or in the town itself that would only help the Government’s arguments, and it’s the Government that have let the residents of Epping down.”
