A summary of today's developments
The Home Office won its appeal against the closure of the Bell hotel in Epping for asylum seekers. This means asylum seekers will stay in the lodgings in Essex past 12 September.
In its successful appeal, the Home Office argued removing the men could damage the asylum accommodation system but the government said it still plans to stop using the hotels by the end of this parliament. The council could still be granted another injunction at the full hearing in mid-October.
Epping Forest District council has said “this is not the end of the matter” and they will “continue to fight”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch responded to the court decision by saying Keir Starmer “puts the rights of illegal immigrants above British people”, while shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said there is “no acceptable accommodation for illegal migrants”.
In nearby Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, a video posted on YouTube showed dozens of demonstrators behind barriers near the Delta Marriott hotel, which has also been used to house asylum seekers.
Essex police said it was putting a section 60AA order in place in Epping, which gives police the power to ask anyone to remove an item such as a mask that is being used to conceal identity. The order will be in place for 24 hours, the force said. In a post on Facebook, Essex police said: “Throughout the evening, we have monitored a protest in Cheshunt and we now believe a group of people present there are planning to travel to Epping. A number of people involved in that group have been seen wearing facemasks and balaclavas.”
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Deputy PM Angela Rayner should face an ethics inquiry over her tax affairs, the Conservatives said.
The Telegraph newspaper claimed Rayner, who is also the housing secretary, saved £40,000 in stamp duty on a second home she bought in Hove for £800,000.
This was because she removed her name from the deed to a family property in Greater Manchester, the newspaper reported.
However, Rayner also previously suggested the Greater Manchester home remained her primary residence, according to the Telegraph, saving some £2,000 in council tax on her grace and favour home in central London at Admiralty House.
The Conservatives have referred Rayner to the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministers’ interests as a result of the conflicting reports.
The Tories have also written to Tameside council, the authority that covers her Greater Manchester home, asking the authority to strike her from the electoral register if the property is no longer her primary residence.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said Rayner “has followed advice on the allocation of her official residence at all times”.
A statement provided by the deputy prime minister’s team to the Telegraph said: “The deputy prime minister paid the relevant duty owing on the purchase of the Hove property in line with relevant requirements and entirely properly.
“Any suggestion otherwise is entirely without basis.”
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Police issue warning over protesters from Cheshunt planning to travel to Epping
Essex police said it was putting a section 60AA order in place in Epping, which gives police the power to ask anyone to remove an item such as a mask that is being used to conceal identity.
The order will be in place for 24 hours, the force said.
In a post on Facebook, Essex police said: “Throughout the evening, we have monitored a protest in Cheshunt and we now believe a group of people present there are planning to travel to Epping.
“A number of people involved in that group have been seen wearing facemasks and balaclavas.”
Assistant chief constable Glen Pavelin said: “We will always seek to facilitate peaceful protest, for all groups.
“But the threat of antisocial behaviour and criminality by people attempting to conceal their identity steps outside of the reasonableness of protest, and we have a duty to protect our community.
“My officers will be fair and engaging, but they will be firm in how they deal with anyone who is asked to remove a face covering and refuses.
“Anyone who does not will face arrest.”
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In nearby Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, a video posted on YouTube showed dozens of demonstrators behind barriers near the Delta Marriott hotel, which has also been used to house asylum seekers.
Police stood in front of the barriers and some roads were closed with counter-protesters from Stand Up To Racism also in attendance.
At one point, protesters appeared to clash with officers.
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MSP denies placing secret camera in Scottish Parliament toilets
Away from the ruling for a moment, suspended Labour MSP Colin Smyth has denied allegations that he placed a secret camera in toilets inside the Scottish Parliament.
The Press Association understands that Smyth has been charged by the police in relation to the allegation, which was first reported in the Daily Record.
The South Scotland MSP was arrested on 5 August and charged with a separate offence of possession of indecent images, prompting his suspension from Scottish Labour.
His Holyrood pass was deactivated on Thursday.
On Friday, Smyth said he was “fully co-operating” with the investigation but said the decision by the police to release further information and his home address had been “devastating”.
He said:
This allegation has come as an utter shock and one I strongly refute.
For legal reasons, I can’t respond to specific matters or speculation, and I appreciate there is a process to go through which I am, of course, fully co-operating with. But I sincerely hope it can be concluded quickly and fairly.
The speculation, and the recent decision by the police to publicly release details of their ongoing inquiries along with my home address has been devastating and has taken a serious toll on my health.
After my address was published with no warning to my family, I felt I had no choice but to move away to protect them. That has also meant losing the local NHS critical support I had been receiving for the past few weeks, making an already difficult time even more distressing.
I would therefore ask that the privacy of myself, but above all my family and friends, is respected while this matter is resolved. Having this hanging over them is especially overwhelming.
Responding to the ruling, Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais, told the BBC it “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”.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokeswoman, Lisa Smart, told the broadcaster that Labour should be “speeding up asylum processing to bring down the backlog and end hotel use once and for all”.
And border security and asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle said the government “will stop using hotels, which aren’t a sustainable solution, by the end of this parliament”.
“This judgement assists us by allowing us to do that in a planned and orderly fashion,” she said.
“We all want the same thing,” she added, “which is to get out of asylum hotels”.
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Analysis: Labour won the legal battle over asylum hotels, but the right is running the story
Protesters were already gathering outside the Bell hotel by Friday evening with St George and union flags waving. This court ruling was never going to end as a quiet legal moment.
For the Home Office, the court of appeal’s decision was a practical win. If the ruling had gone the other way the government would have been forced to rehouse 138 asylum seekers in a matter of days, opening the floodgates to similar legal challenges from other councils. Since there is scant alternative accommodation available, this ruling buys the government time.
Government insiders say that by the end of the year they expect at least five more hotels housing asylum seekers to close, with more to follow in the new year. If the closures proceed, the ruling means they still have time to deliver their promise of shutting all the hotels down “in a controlled and orderly way” by 2029.
But political tensions have, of course, been reignited. Nigel Farage immediately jumped on the moment, accusing the government of “using the law against the people of Epping”. He said “illegal migrants now have more rights than the people of Essex” and promised Reform UK would “put an end to this”. This is the kind of high-emotion, high-visibility moment Farage thrives on and a story that plays into his hands.
Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, also piled in, telling supporters on X: “Judges side with illegal migrants against British people. ECHR used by judges to overrule planning law, democratic protests and the safety of Epping residents.”
The government remains stuck in the same political fight – trying to stave off challenges from the right while at the same time getting on with the job of ensuring there is a functioning political project that can communicate its wins.
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Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, said: “Nobody wants to close the Bell hotel and all other asylum hotels more than me.”
She reiterated the government’s pledge to do this by 2029.
Asked what her message is for those who say the fight’s not over, she responded: “I think we all want the same thing – which is to get out of asylum hotels.”
Eagle added: “We’ve said they’re not sustainable and we’ve inherited a system with huge backlogs,” the BBC reported.
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A temporary injunction that would have blocked asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex, has been overturned by the court of appeal. Here we explain what the court decided, and its significance, writes Haroon Siddique and Aletha Adu.
What was the appeal about?
Last week, after an application by Epping Forest district council (EFDC), a high court judge ruled that asylum seekers could no longer be placed at the protest-hit Bell hotel and gave its owner, Somani Hotels, until 12 September to rehouse the 138 remaining there. Mr Justice Eyre granted the injunction, to remain in force until the case could be heard in full in October, after hearing EFDC’s complaints that planning law had been breached in changing the site’s use.
Somani Hotels challenged the decision at the court of appeal, as did the Home Office, which had been refused permission by Eyre to intervene in the high court case.
What did the court of appeal decide and why?
The three justices said both Somani Hotels and the Home Office, which it permitted to intervene in the case, could appeal against Eyre’s decision and quashed the temporary injunction in the meantime.
Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, said Eyre had made a number of errors in principle. He said: “The judge’s approach ignores the obvious consequence that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system.”
A protester outside the Bell Hotel in Epping said the Court of Appeal ruling was “devastating” and could “cause civil unrest”.
Carmen, who wore a pink top that said “Pink Ladies Say, The Only Way is Epping, Send Them Home” on it, said she was “very let down” by the ruling.
Speaking outside the Bell Hotel, the Epping resident told the PA news agency: “We come every week – march, protest – and today’s ruling is just devastating, absolutely devastating. It will probably cause civil unrest.
“It’s shocking, it’s like they’ve won. The schools go back next week – the kids will be walking around the back, it’s not good.”
Asked why she was protesting outside the hotel, Carmen said: “To show our support – get them out.
“We’re not racist, and I’m all for things done legally, but these are unvetted 18-30s, maybe some plus.
“We don’t know who they are, we don’t know what they’ve done, but now they’re letting us know what they’re like.”
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An Epping councillor said the Court of Appeal ruling was “hurtful” and claims children are “frightened to go to school” in the town.
Shane Yerrell, who represents Waltham Abbey West for Epping Forest District Council, said he was “disgusted” by the Court of Appeal’s ruling.
Speaking outside the Bell Hotel, Yerrell told the PA news agency: “All the local parents felt like there was one big step forward when the High Court agreed to close the hotel and things started to calm down.
“But then for the Home Office and the Government to both appeal and that be accepted today is hurtful.”
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In a further statement following the Court of Appeal ruling, Epping Forest District Council said it was “ruling nothing out”, including taking its bid for a temporary injunction to the Supreme Court.
It said: “We do not accept the criticisms of the council which has acted only in the interests of the people of Epping Forest. We are reviewing our position – we are ruling nothing out until we have examined all the options up to and including the Supreme Court.
“Epping Forest District Council has responded to criticism related to earlier use of the Bell Hotel despite this not being relevant to the current legal action.
“The circumstances of the placement in 2023 were very different to those in 2025. In reality the complexity of some planning applications mean that they take much longer than the statutory eight weeks to determine.”
The council added: “In any case it would not have affected the outcome of the application. At any time after the eight-week period, the hotel operator could have appealed against non-determination.
“In the event, the Home Office ceased the use of the Bell as asylum seeker accommodation and it became an academic point.
“To have continued once the use had ceased would seem to have been a waste of taxpayers’ money, especially as we had no reason to believe the Bell would be stood up again.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp claimed the Epping hotel case had “seen the Labour government using the courts against the British public”. He said:
The government even brazenly said in court that the rights of illegal immigrants were more important than the rights of local people.
The numbers in asylum hotels were dropping fast before the election – but have risen since because Labour has lost control of our borders.
We need a proper deterrent so that all illegal immigrants are immediately removed on arrival. Then no one would bother crossing in the first place. We had a plan to do this – the Rwanda plan – but Labour scrapped it just before it was due to start. As a result, numbers crossing the channel are now the worst ever.
We have a full-blown border crisis and public-safety crisis – but this government is too weak to take the action needed to fix it.
The full written ruling overturning the temporary injunction which would have blocked asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel will be handed down remotely on Monday at 4pm, according to court listings.
Before reading a summary of their judgment on Friday, Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, said their full judgment, running to more than 120 paragraphs, would be handed down later.
The leader of Epping Forest District Council in Essex has questioned whether Bell Hotel owners Somani Hotels “chased” its planning application.
In a summary of their ruling, Lord Justice Bean, Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb highlighted that in February 2023 Somani had sought planning permission from the council to temporarily change the hotel’s use to accommodate asylum seekers rather than paying members of the public, but that the council “did not process the application” for more than a year.
Asked why the application had taken so long to process, councillor Christopher Whitbread said he was “not close enough to the detail” to give a “full answer”.
He added: “I think, you know, you have to ask yourself ‘was the company chasing the planning application during that time?’
“In my knowledge of planning applications, if they’ve been delayed, that the company going for the planning application will be chasing the council.
“Did they chase the council? We don’t know.”
The government has “let the residents of Epping down”, the leader of Epping Forest District Council said.
Asked what his message would be to people who may be planning to protest this weekend in the Essex town, Councillor Christopher Whitbread told the PA news agency: “We don’t want to see some violent scenes around the hotel or in the town itself that would that would only help the Government’s arguments, and it’s the Government that have let the residents of Epping down.
“I had numerous conversations with various people around this issue, the Home Office were not helpful.”
He said housing asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel was “not right” for residents of Epping or those living in the hotel itself, adding: “We made that argument to the previous government and eventually they closed it.
“This Government reopened it in April with no real consultation with us, they instructed us that they were going to use it.
“We were instructed on the numbers and such that they were prepared to use it up to, and really they have let down completely the residents of Epping Forest, and I think what underlined it was their legal argument yesterday around the ECHR and the fact that the asylum seekers trump the residents of Epping when it comes to their rights.”
In reaction to today’s verdict, Weyman Bennett, Stand Up to Racism co-convenor said: “The initial judgement was always wrong. It was a concession to racist thugs set on scapegoating and intimidating refugees.”
Kevin Courtney, Stand Up To Racism co-chair, said: “This court judgement is welcome, hateful demonstrations should not determine public policy.
“The far right will seek to use it to stimulate more and more hostile demonstrations targeting asylum seeker in hotels. It’s important that all people of goodwill speak out and peacefully mobilise against this hateful targeting of vulnerable people.”
Protesters have begun to gather outside the Bell Hotel in Epping after the Court of Appeal ruling.
A small number of demonstrators carrying England and Union flags have gathered outside the hotel, with police officers guarding its entrance – which is gated off with metal fencing.
An England flag has been attached to a drain pipe on the side of the Bell Hotel and England flags have also been painted onto signs and a speed camera outside the hotel.
Three appeal judges on Friday set aside a temporary injunction granted to Epping Forest district council last week, saying the decision to allow it was “seriously flawed” and contained several “errors in principle”.
The hotel has in recent weeks become the focus of repeated protests – some of which have been orchestrated by far-right extremists and have turned violent. Epping council had offered this as part of its grounds for seeking the injunction – alongside concerns about planning permission for the hotel.
Last week, Mr Justice Eyre, sitting in the high court, agreed. But, on Friday, the court of appeal judges said upholding that order could lead to further disorder by effectively demonstrating it could achieve its ultimate goal – the removal of the asylum seekers one way or another.
They said the people living at the Bell hotel would have to be housed somewhere, while other councils could take preserving the injunction as a green light to seek the same in their areas.
In a summary of their ruling, Lord Justice Bean, Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb said that Somani Hotels, which owns the Bell hotel, was first made aware of legal action being taken by Epping Forest district council when it “received the court papers and a court bundle running to over 1,600 pages”.
The judges said the authority’s “tactics” were “procedurally unfair” and “ought to have reinforced the argument” that a temporary injunction should not have been issued.
They said:
For much of the period of four years from 2020-2024, Somani [Hotels] had been running the hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers without enforcement action from the council.
When, in 2023, Somani [Hotels] sought planning consent to change its use, for over a year, Epping did not process the application, notwithstanding the statutory duty upon it to do so within eight weeks.
The council was aware by February 2025 that the hotel was once again to be used to house asylum seekers and by its letter of 15 May 2025, Somani [Hotels] made clear that it had been advised by the Home Office that a planning application was unnecessary.
The council took no steps in response to this letter, whether by issuing an enforcement notice or otherwise. There was no threat of court proceedings.
Epping Forest district council will “continue to fight” the government after the court of appeal ruling, a councillor has said.
Holly Whitbread said the ruling was “deeply disappointing”, adding she felt “utterly let down and betrayed by the government”. Whitbread, who is finance and economic development portfolio holder for Epping Forest district council, told the PA news agency:
The council will continue to fight this
We’re looking at our legal options now and we will be going ahead, I presume, with the permanent injunction in the October trial, if that’s still possible.
The Conservative councillor added:
The council has always been against the use of this hotel in this location.
One of the key points that wasn’t made clear in the court case was the change to all-male asylum seekers within the hotel.
I’m pretty furious at the government’s action to intervene in what was a legal planning matter. And I think this news will be deeply disappointing to the residents of Epping Forest and, more broadly, across the UK as well.
In a summary of their ruling overturning the injunction related to the Bell hotel, Lord Justice Bean, Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb said an argument put forward by the Home Office in the appeal about a “hierarchy of rights” was “unattractive”.
The Home Office had told the court of appeal in written submissions for Thursday’s hearing that while Epping Forest district council represented “the public interest that subsists in planning control in its local area”, the department represented the “public interest of the entirety of the United Kingdom”.
Barristers for the government told the court that the European convention on human rights “establishes non-derogable fundamental human rights”, adding:
The respective legal rights in play are fundamentally different in nature.
In a summary of their ruling, the three court of appeal judges said:
The written arguments on behalf of [the Home Office] in this appeal included the contention that ‘the relevant public interests in play are not equal’ and that one aspect of this is that the home secretary’s statutory duty is a manifestation of the UK’s obligations under article 3 of the European convention on human rights. This point was not pursued in oral argument.
Any argument in this particular context about a hierarchy of rights is in our view unattractive.
The summary continued:
We were told by counsel for Epping [Forest district council] that the protests operated as a ‘trigger’ for the application for the injunction. The fact of protests outside a building is not obviously a matter falling within planning control.
While we accept that the judge was right to exercise considerable caution before attaching weight to the fact of the protests, including unlawful protests outside the hotel, he nonetheless gave weight in his evaluation to the fact that protests were occurring and weighed them in the balance as a factor in favour of granting the injunction.
These are worrying aspects of the judgment.
If an outbreak of protests enhances the case for a planning injunction, this runs the risk of acting as an impetus or incentive for further protests, some of which may be disorderly, around asylum accommodation.
At its worst, if even unlawful protests are to be treated as relevant, there is a risk of encouraging further lawlessness. The judge does not appear to have considered this risk, again perhaps because he had denied himself the advantage of hearing submissions on the merits from counsel for the [Home Office].
Further and in any event, in this regard the judge failed to consider whether there would have been alternative measures to mitigate the disruption, such as the use of police powers.
Nigel Farage claimed the European convention on human rights had been “used” by the government “against the people of Epping”, though the judge ruled that arguments about a “hierarchy of rights” were “unattractive”.
The Reform UK leader said:
The government has used ECHR against the people of Epping. Illegal migrants have more rights than the British people under Starmer.
He did not specify which part of the case he was referring to.
The Home Office’s lawyers had argued “the relevant public interests in play are not equal”, referring to Epping’s interest in enforcing planning control on the one hand, and the home secretary’s duty which comes from UK obligations under the ECHR on the other.
However, Friday’s ruling says:
Any argument in this particular context about a hierarchy of rights is in our view unattractive.
For more on this topic, read BBC News home and legal correspondent Dominic Casciani’s take on the ruling (see 3.29pm BST).
Leader of Epping Forest council calls for calm after court of appeal ruling
The leader of Epping Forest district council has called for calm after the court of appeal ruled asylum seekers can stay at the Bell hotel in Essex.
Councillor Chris Whitbread told Times Radio:
I call for calm. There’s been peaceful protests and there’s been non peaceful protests outside the hotel.
He added:
We saw yesterday the government say that asylum seekers have more rights than my residents. I’m really cross with this ruling. Obviously we’ll now reflect on where we are.
Obviously we’re still going to court in October to go for a final injunction and we will be pushing hard to make sure that’s successful, but we will do everything we can still.
This is an awful position for the town … I’m really concerned for the future of the town at the moment.
Speaking outside the London court after the ruling, Ken Williamson, member of cabinet for Epping Forest district council said:
We understand government faces a dilemma, but that should not be at the expense of local communities.
Planning law may seem dull, it might seem boring, but it goes to the heart of the relationship between local communities and good government. It enshrines the rights of local people to have a say within their own communities, and it should not be set aside lightly. The government can still listen.
It needs to understand and take responsibility for the events that have taken place in Epping over the past six weeks, for the trauma and disruption brought upon our community.
The council could still be granted an injunction after a full hearing of the legal claim, which is due to be heard in October.
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Reacting to the overturning of the injunction, Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said while the government was successful in its appeal, the reality of using hotels to house asylum seekers is “untenable”. He said:
Waiting until 2029 to end their use is no longer an option.
As long as hotels remain open, they will continue to be flashpoints for protests, fuelling division and leaving people who have fled war and persecution feeling unsafe.
Through our frontline work we see how refugees housed in neighbourhoods, rather than isolated in hotels, are able to rebuild their lives, enter training or work, and contribute to the local economy.
The refugee charity urged ministers to adopt a “one off” scheme granting temporary permission to stay to asylum seekers from countries most likely to be recognised as refugees as a way to close hotels by next year, according to its own analysis.
Speaking on BBC News, the broadcaster’s home and legal correspondent, Dominic Casciani, said from outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the judgment:
To use an analogy from sport, it felt like a wrestling smackdown for the judge who gave this injunction to the council.
This is quite a technical thing because in essence the lower court, the high court, the judge there had the discretion to say: ‘Look, I’ve looked at all the facts and using my discretion, which is why I think an injunction is necessary because the facts on the ground are such that we’ve got a really concerning situation. We’ve got to contain what’s going on there, therefore I think it’s in the best interest to move the asylum seekers out for the time being before Epping Forest district council gets to mount its full case against the hotel owner, which will then ultimately decide the issue one way or another.’
What the court of appeal said today was: ‘No, you got that completley wrong. And the reason you got that completely wrong is because you failed to take into account that there are compelling arguments that the home secretary has to be allowed to make, because she is under a legal duty, imposed by parliament.’
[And] this is the important thing, it’s imposed by parliament, it’s got nothing to do with the European court of human rights or all that stuff you might read elsewhere, this is a duty imposed by parliament to make sure that asylum seekers aren’t sleeping on the streets. So, every day that the home secretary is not finding somewhere to put somebody in a bed, she’s facing potential legal action over that failure to do so. And what the court of appeal said was that the judge who issued the injuction should have taken all of this in to account before issuing his orders to clear the hotel, because how could he otherwise have understood the implications for national policy and effectively what is known as the wider public interest.
… the strength of the argument from the court of appeal … in essence, the practical effects of that are that I think this makes it exceptionally hard for any other council to try and do what Epping Forest [council] have done.
Government reiterats that all asylum hotels will close by the next election, in statement after court of appeal ruling
The Home Office has issued a ministerial statement regarding today’s court of appeal judgment on the use of the Bell hotel. Angela Eagle, minister for border security and asylum said:
We inherited a chaotic asylum accommodation system costing billions. This government will close all hotels by the end of this parliament and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way that avoids the chaos of recent years that saw 400 hotels open at a cost of £9m a day.
The number of hotels has almost halved since its peak in 2023 and we have brought down costs by 15% saving £700m and putting us on track to save a billion pounds a year by 2028-29.
We are also working hard to relieve pressure on the system and striking back at criminal people smuggling gangs at every stage, including returning more than 35,000 people who have no right to be here, equipping law enforcement with counter-terror style powers and starting to detain small boat arrivals under our groundbreaking deal with France.
It will take some time to fix the broken system we inherited, but the British public deserve nothing less, and we will not stop until the job is done.
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Senior Tory Robert Jenrick called the court of appeal ruling “extremely disappointing” and urged councils to still take action to close asylum hotels in their areas.
Shadow justice secretary Jenrick posted on X:
This is an extremely disappointing decision. Yvette Cooper used taxpayer money – your money – to keep open a hotel housing illegal migrants.
The government’s lawyers argued accommodating illegal migrants was in the ‘national interest’. In court they said the right of illegal migrants to free hotels is more important than the rights of the British people.
Well, they are not. The British government should always put the interests of the British people first. Starmer’s government has shown itself to be on the side of illegal migrants who have broken into our county. But this is not a free pass for asylum hotels.
Councils can and should still act to close hotels. If they don’t, residents will rightly ask, on whose side are they? My team and LawForBorders will continue to provide legal assistance to help protect communities.
There is no acceptable accommodation for illegal migrants. The government should be prioritising Brits in need and deporting every illegal migrant, as the last government should have done and I’ve argued for years.
Senior Conservative James Cleverly suggested that the Home Office was cutting local people out of the loop. The shadow local government secretary said:
I’m sure that Yvette Cooper and the Home Office officials think this is good news. It really isn’t. Cutting local people and their elected representatives out of the loop isn’t a good look.
After the court of appeal’s ruling, Lisa Foster of Richard Buxton Solicitors, which represents Somani Hotels, said:
We are pleased that the court of appeal has ruled that the injunction should not have been granted by the high court.
Our clients realise that they have been caught in the middle of a much wider debate on the treatment of asylum seekers and respectfully ask that members of the public understand that the Bell hotel has simply been providing a contracted service that the government requires.
We now ask that all associated with the Bell hotel are left alone to continue to support the government’s asylum plans as best they can.
We are grateful to the court of appeal for appreciating the urgency of the matter from everyone’s point of view and dealing with the matter so swiftly.
We have no further comment and will not be commenting on the matter again.
Badenoch claims Starmer 'puts rights of illegal immigrants above rights of British people' in strongly worded statement after judgment
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed Keir Starmer “puts the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British people who just want to feel safe in their towns and communities”. She urged Conservative councillors seeking similar injunctions to “KEEP GOING!” despite the ruling.
In a statement, 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.
This ruling is a setback, but it is not the end. I say to Conservative councils seeking similar injunctions against asylum hotels – KEEP GOING!
Every case has different circumstances, and I know good Conservative councils will keep fighting for residents, so we will keep working with them every step of the way.
She said the party will be writing to all Tory councillors with further advice after the judgment.
Badenoch added:
Labour have run out of options, so the only answer left is to dump the problem on local communities.
Fear of crime 'properly taken into account' by injunction but 'undesirability of incentivising protests' outweighed it - judge
Reading the summary, Lord Justice Bean said:
The Epping residents’ fear of crime was properly taken into account by the judge as a factor in favour of grant of an injunction. He described it as being of limited weight.
He added:
We agree it is relevant, but in our view, it is clearly outweighed … by the undesirability of incentivising protests, by the desirability in the interests of justice of preserving status quo for the relatively brief period leading up to the forthcoming trial and by the range of public interest factors which we have discussed in our judgment.
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Temporary injunction to block asylum seekers at Epping hotel overturned, judges rule
A temporary injunction that would have blocked asylum seekers from being housed
at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex, has been overturned at the court of appeal.
Quashing the injunction, Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, said:
We grant permission to appeal, both to Somani and to [the Home Office].
He continued:
We allow the appeals and we set aside the injunction imposed on 19 August 2025.
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High Court judge who issued injunction made 'number of errors' that 'undermine' decision - judge
Giving a summary of their ruling, 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 similar steps as Epping Forest district council. He said:
The potential cumulative impact of such ad-hoc applications was a material consideration … that was not considered by the judge.
Judge grants Home Office's application for permission to appeal
Three senior judges have ruled that the Home Office can intervene in the case related to a temporary injunction concerning the Bell hotel in Epping.
Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, said that Mr Justice Eyre made an “erroneous” decision not to let the department be involved.
Reading a summary of their decision, Bean said the Home Office had a “constitutional role relating to public safety” and was affected by the issues.
Ruling not concerned with the merits of government policy of housing asylum seekers in hotels - judge
Reading a summary of the ruling, Lord Justice Bean said:
We should say at the outset what this appeal is not about.
It is not concerned with the merits of government policy in relation to the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers in hotels or otherwise.
Updated
Lord Justice Bean is reading a summary of the panel’s judgment. He’s just outlined the two linked applications for permission to appeal, one from the Home Office and home secretary and the other by Somani Hotels, which owns the Bell hotel.
He has also spoken about how many asylum seekers the hotel houses and Epping Forest district council’s (EFDC) argument that Somani Hotel’s actions are in breach of planning law.
Three senior judges have begun giving their judgment on whether to overturn a temporary injunction which is set to block asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex.
Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, is reading a summary of their decision at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
We’re expecting the judgment from the court of appeal shortly on whether to overturn a temporary injunction to block asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex.
In the meantime, here’s the Guardian’s report on the hearing that took place yesterday:
The government failed to analyse the costs involved in the largest reorganisation of English councils in decades, BBC News reports.
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner claimed that merging councils in 21 areas into single authorities could save “a significant amount of money.”
But cost estimates from Rayner’s housing department were based on a 2020 report commissioned by the County Councils Network (CCN), which projected potential savings of £2.9bn over a five-years period.
Since then, the CCN has updated its findings and now suggests that the reorganisation might not lead to any savings and could, in some cases, result in higher costs.
Tim Oliver, chairman of the CCN, said reorganisation could still deliver “billions in efficiency savings to be reinvested in frontline services,” but only if implemented at the right scale.
Oliver added:
We are concerned over the potential costs of reorganisation where proposals seek to replace the two-tier system with multiple small unitary councils.
In the current two-tier system, responsibilities are shared between county councils and district councils. Local councils involved in the restructuring have been submitting proposals to form new single-tier authorities.
David Lammy was given more than £32,000 worth of luxury gifts from the crown prince of Kuwait after visiting the country last month but is not keeping the offerings due to UK government rules, PA reports.
The foreign secretary received a Chopard watch and pen set worth £11,002, a Cartier pen worth £435, FRED jewellery worth £18,250 and perfume worth £2,500 by Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, newly released data shows. All the gifts, given in July, will be held by the Foreign Office.
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has not kept a special edition whisky he was given by Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort, which was above the value limit for gifts that can be accepted by members of government without being declared.
A book and a tie he received from French president Emmanuel Macron, and a leather wallet received by Victoria Starmer from Brigitte Macron, have also been held by No 10 rather than purchased.
Ministers can keep gifts worth up to £140 and do not have to declare them but if the gift is of higher value, they can choose to pay the difference between the value and £140 to buy it, or to leave it with their department.
Updated
Greens to announce leadership contest result on Tuesday
Meanwhile, the Green party in England and Wales has confirmed it will announce the result of its leadership election on Tuesday (2 September).
Two weeks ago, we reported that Zack Polanski, the insurgent candidate whose “eco-populism” and social media savvy have upended the race, had started to pull away from his more-established rivals.
There is a growing expectation that the election will be won by the 42-year-old former Liberal Democrat, who appears to have seized the initiative from his opponents. One likened it to a “hostile takeover”.
The comment relates to an apparent influx of new left-leaning members in local areas, attracted by his modern communications method and more pugnacious style. It has left his nearest opponents, Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, struggling to gain traction despite their head start in terms of profile within the party.
The full timetable for its internal elections can be viewed here.
The new leaders of the Scottish Greens, Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, have promised to campaign for a universal income, free bus travel and higher taxation on the rich after winning a muted election contest.
Greer and Mackay, who were both backbench MSPs at Holyrood, were appointed co-conveners of the Scottish Greens after a noticeably low turnout of 12.7% – only 950 of the party’s 7,500 members voted after a low-key summer campaign.
They admitted the turnout was worrying. Greer said he had long believed the party had lost its energy and significant changes to its structures, internal elections and campaign apparatus were needed.
“We’ve allowed ourselves to become a radical bureaucracy rather than a radical democracy,” he said. “And we need to see serious internal reform. We need to reform as a party if we are to grow as a party.”
Mackay denied it was embarrassing. “I think it is a concern. And I think that’s why we do need to find out why [turnout was so low],” she said.
The leadership contest took on added significance as it was called after Patrick Harvie, who had been the UK’s longest-serving party leader, announced earlier this year he was standing down after 17 years in the post due to ill health.
Scott McDonald, the chief executive of the British Council, has written an opinion piece for the Guardian:
On Wednesday night, our office in Kyiv was damaged in a Russian missile attack. It was a stark reminder of the risks that an organisation such as ours faces in conflict-affected areas. I was relieved to hear that all colleagues were safe and accounted for. One colleague was injured and admitted to hospital but thankfully he is in a stable condition.
Working under such conditions around the world is challenging, and yet, time and again, our colleagues and partners demonstrate courage and commitment in carrying on despite the dangers. Their resilience is extraordinary. We are working to find ways to minimise disruption and continuing to support our team there.
Persistent air alerts mean some of our colleagues are required to remain in shelters, but sadly this is nothing new. The war has taken an enormous toll on the Ukrainian population, including a deterioration in quality of life, severe psychological and emotional challenges, and the disruption of social connections and education.
But the unyielding spirit of the people is always evident. Take, for instance, a British Council event that took place in September last year, when we set up a pop-up event in Lviv in partnership with Molodvizh, the city’s largest youth event. Tragically, during a missile attack a few hours before the event, a representative of a partner organisation was killed, along with her family. This greatly affected everyone, but it was felt by all the partners that it was important the event should continue.
Despite these perilous circumstances, British Council colleagues and partner organisations continue our work with education, teaching, English language learning and cultural programmes right across Ukraine, as we have done for the past 30 years. When a country is at war the protection of its culture is ever more important, and the British Council is a key partner in supporting Ukraine.
You can read the full piece here:
For the first time, a free chickenpox vaccination will be offered to children in England by the NHS from January next year.
My colleagues, Nicola Davis and Jamie Grierson explore the background to the rollout in this explainer:
Judges to rule on Bell Hotel injunction at 2pm on Friday
Three senior judges will rule on whether to overturn a temporary injunction to block asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex, at 2pm on Friday.
The Home Office and Somani Hotels, which owns the site, are attempting to challenge a high court judge’s decision last week to issue an interim injunction to Epping Forest district council that will stop dozens of asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell hotel beyond 12 September.
The government is also seeking to appeal against Justice Eyre’s decision not to allow it to intervene in the case, while the council opposes the appeal bids, the PA news agency reports.
At the end of a hearing on Thursday, Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, said that they would hand down their judgment on Friday afternoon. He said:
Because of the great urgency of this matter, we will aim to give judgment at 2pm tomorrow.
If it proves impractical for us to meet the deadline, we will let people know in advance.
Speaking after the Scottish Green party leader election results were announced in Edinburgh on Friday, newly elected co-leader Gillian Mackay said “today marks a generational shift in the leadership of the Scottish Greens”.
She vowed she and Ross Greer – also a newly elected co-leader – will “lead with courage and listen with intent”, putting party members “at the heart of our movement”. Greer said he is “excited to be embarking on this journey as co-leader” with his “friend” Mackay, reports the PA news agency.
Mackay won 34% of first preference votes, and was elected at stage one of the ballot. Greer gained 31% of first preference votes, ahead of Lorna Slater on 28% and Dominic Ashmole, who polled 7%. Greer was elected at the third stage of the ballot, with 33.4% of votes, ahead of Slater, who had 32%.
Greer said after the results were announced:
Gillian and I have known each other for a long time, we have spent a long time talking about what we would do if we were ever in charge of this party. Now we get to stress-test all of those theories about what a Scottish Green party led by us would actually look like.
He insisted the Scottish Greens are “the only genuinely progressive party left in this country” in the run-up to next May’s Holyrood election. He claimed the SNP is “dropping progressive policies all over the place”, while Labour is “aping every Nigel Farage press release”.
Greer said the Greens are “brave enough to take on the rich and powerful”, and he told party members:
Now is the time for us to do difficult things. We know our party can do better, can be better. We need to continue on that journey of improvement, we need to get better with our messaging, better with our campaigns.
We need to make it fun. We are trying to transform Scotland for the better, that should be a joyful experience for everyone who wants to get involved in.
Mackay meanwhile said Green policies, such as free bus travel for under-22s and the introduction of buffer zones around abortion clinics – legislation she herself successfully brought forward at Holyrood – mean the party has “already started improving the lives of millions”. But she insisted: “We can and will go further.”
Mackay, who had her first baby over the summer recess, said she will “champion a four-day week, better parental pay and basic universal income” – adding these are “policies that will transform lives”.
Both new co-leaders praised their predecessors, with Mackay saying:
I want to thank Patrick for the work he has done for the party in the past 17 years. I have never known a Scottish Greens without him at the helm, and I certainly think it is going to be an adjustment for us all.
Greer said:
Patrick has defined our party in the eyes of the Scottish public for almost two decades, he has led us through periods of incredible growth and achievement.
He thanked Patrick Harvie for “transforming this party from a well-meaning, enthusiastic fringe outfit into a force capable of delivering the transformation people and planet really need here in Scotland”. He also thanked Slater for “six years of incredible service as co-leader of our party”.
Updated
Government silence and a light news agenda has created the conditions for a seemingly well-funded Nigel Farage barrage, writes the Guardian’s deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot.
You can read her analysis on Farage season and how, with its rivals away, Reform has been basking in summer headlines:
Bunting has been removed by a council from across a road due to concerns that a high-sided vehicle could drive into it and pull down the poles holding it up, reports the PA news agency.
Durham county council has issued a statement about the recent increase in the number of union flags and Saint George’s cross displays on lamp-posts.
The Reform-led council said that while it understood and respected people’s desire to display national pride, public safety should not be compromised. It will take a “risk-based approach” and it will remove flags where they pose a danger to road users, obstruct visibility for drivers or pedestrians, or if they are poorly secured.
The statement published on Friday continued:
Yesterday we were left with no choice but to remove bunting across a road at New Brancepeth, following a risk assessment. The rope involved was so strong that, had a high-sided vehicle driven into it, the poles it was attached to could have been pulled down.
Our approach reflects our commitment to balancing community expression with public safety, practical resource management, and proportionality in our operations.
According to the PA news agency, the council also warned the public of the risk of attaching flags to lighting columns, saying that leaning ladders against them “imposes additional loads beyond their designed capacity”. The council said:
The weight of a person climbing or working on a column can lead to structural failure, endangering both the installer and the public.
UK bank shares tumble after call for windfall tax on lenders in budget
UK bank shares tumbled on Friday, cutting the stock market value of the sector by almost £8bn in morning trading, as fresh calls for a windfall tax on large lenders in the autumn budget spooked investors.
Calls for a tax grab, in a paper written by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank, took a toll on some of the UK’s biggest high street banks. NatWest Group suffered the biggest drop on Friday morning, registering a decline of as much as 5% in its share price, while Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays followed close behind, falling 4.5% and 3.6% respectively. HSBC dropped more than 1%.
The falls cut the notional value of the UK’s biggest banks by £7.9bn within hours of the market opening.
It comes as rumours swirl over a number of potential tax increases – including on banks, property and landlords’ rental income – which could help the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, plug a shortfall of up to £40bn in the public finances.
The IPPR’s report calls for a new tax on the big banks that would help to recover “windfalls” enjoyed by lenders as a result of an emergency economic policy known as quantitative easing, which was put in place in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Pre-budget lift for Rachel Reeves as UK business confidence rises
Confidence among UK businesses has grown despite anxiety about the state of the economy, in a rare slice of positive news for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in the run-up to her autumn budget.
An August poll of UK companies by Lloyds Bank showed that improved sentiment among manufacturers and retailers helped push overall optimism within UK plc up by two percentage points, with 54% of companies now feeling confident in the current environment.
It marked the fourth consecutive monthly increase in overall business sentiment, according to the Lloyds business barometer, driven by a growing number of businesses – roughly 63% – feeling strong about their own trading prospects. On that measurement alone, confidence reached its highest level since 2014.
About half of all businesses now expect to hire more staff in the coming year despite growing costs. The survey found 38% of companies are expecting to have to raise wages by 3% or more, with the vast majority – 83% – saying that higher employment-related costs would have a limited impact on hiring plans.
Overall optimism across the private sector comes despite jitters over the state of the economy, with levels of positive sentiment falling for the first time since the drop seen in April, when Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcements sparked fears over the future of global trade. Economic confidence fell three points to 44% this month, Lloyds said, although that remained above the longer-term average of 19%.
However, the fact that business confidence continues to rise amid the economic gloom will be a rare piece of good news for the chancellor, given fears that a fresh round of tax increases – meant to bolster the public finances – could knock confidence and investment across the private sector as companies try to recoup and offset costs. Reeves is expected to announce a date for her autumn budget within days.
Scottish Greens elect Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer as co-leaders
Scottish Greens have elected a new co-leadership team, with MSPs Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer voted in to take the party forward.
The pair replace Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, both of whom had served as junior ministers in the Scottish government under a powersharing deal with the SNP.
A new era. 💚
— Scottish Greens (@scottishgreens) August 29, 2025
Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer
Scottish Green Co-Leaders pic.twitter.com/okFq8BoQ4U
Harvie announced earlier this year he was standing down from his co-leadership post. Slater had stood for re-election, but was defeated in the leadership contest, which is held every two years under Scottish Green party rules.
UK bans Israeli officials from flagship defence show
The UK government has banned Israeli officials from attending the country’s flagship defence event next month.
Israeli industry, including UK subsidiaries of Israeli companies will be able to attend London’s Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) show in September but the UK government will not invite representatives of the Israeli government to the major industry event.
The move comes as Keir Starmer prepares to recognise a Palestinian state after warning Israel it would do so if the country did not take steps to relieve suffering in Gaza and met other conditions.
A UK government spokesperson said:
The Israeli government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong. As a result, we can confirm that no Israeli government delegation will be invited to attend DSEI UK 2025.
There must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now, with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
Israel’s defence ministry said that as a result of the trade fair ban it would not run its national pavilion as it has done previously at the DSEI.
Israeli defence companies, such as Elbit Systems, Rafael, IAI and Uvision, will be able to attend.
Conspiracy theorists must be 'defeated', says health minister as NHS to offer childhood chickenpox jab
Conspiracy theorists who spread misinformation must be defeated, a health minister said, as he urged parents to take up the new chickenpox jab.
The government has announced a new vaccination programme for chickenpox from January, meaning that GPs will offer eligible children a combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella – the clinical term for chickenpox – as part of the routine infant vaccination schedule.
Health minister Stephen Kinnock argued it is “common sense” for parents to vaccinate their children, amid what he described as a rise in “vaccine hesitancy” after the Covid pandemic.
Speaking to LBC, Kinnock said:
There’s been a 10-year trend in declining take-up of vaccines, and I think obviously the vaccine hesitancy that came after the pandemic has definitely not helped.
These conspiracy theorists, who are peddling this nonsense and rubbish, we’ve got to take them on, we’ve got to defeat them in our arguments and drown out the noise that they’re making.
The government is working with GPs, schools and public health authorities to create local and national campaigns in an attempt to increase take-up, Kinnock said.
Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, deputy director of immunisation at the UKHSA, said:
Most parents probably consider chickenpox to be a common and mild illness, but for some babies, young children and even adults, chickenpox can be very serious, leading to hospital admission and tragically, while rare, it can be fatal.
It is excellent news, that from next January, we will be introducing a vaccine to protect against chickenpox into the NHS routine childhood vaccination programme – helping prevent what is for most a nasty illness and for those who develop severe symptoms, it could be a life saver.
According to the Department of Health and Social Care, chickenpox causes an estimated £24m in lost income and productivity every year in the UK, with parents forced to take time off work to care for their children. The rollout of the vaccine is also expected to save the NHS £15m a year in costs for treating the illness.
Kinnock said:
We’re giving parents the power to protect their children from chickenpox and its serious complications, while keeping them in nursery or the classroom where they belong and preventing parents from scrambling for childcare or having to miss work.
This vaccine puts children’s health first and gives working families the support they deserve.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises UK health departments, recommended the introduction of the jab on the NHS in November 2023.
Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care and community services at NHS England, said:
This is a hugely positive moment for families as the NHS gets ready to roll out a vaccine to protect children against chickenpox for the first time, adding to the arsenal of other routine jabs that safeguard against serious illness.
We will work with vaccination teams and GP surgeries across the country to roll out the combined MMRV vaccine in the new year, helping to keep children healthy and prevent sickness from these highly contagious viruses.
Updated
The PA news agency reports that outsourcing company Mitie, which manages the Heathrow immigration removal centre (IRC), has responded to its earlier news story about the government instructing it to remove certain jobs at an immigration removal centre from a recruitment website (see 9.07am BST).
A spokesperson for the company said:
As part of our contractual obligations, we employ colleagues to run activities at Heathrow immigration removal centre to support the physical and mental wellbeing of detained individuals.
The impact of these services was highlighted in the recent HMIP (HM Inspectorate of Prisons) report into Harmondsworth, which said that these provisions contributed to a greater overall focus on helping individuals to manage the stresses of detention.
Last year, the watchdog said the conditions at Harmondsworth were the “worst” in the country, with the chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor describing the “chaos” he discovered there as “truly shocking”.
Updated
The Scottish Greens will announce the result of its leadership election on Friday.
Current co-leader Lorna Slater, MSPs Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer and activist Dominic Ashmole are seeking to form the new co-leadership team, with the result to be announced at an event in Edinburgh.
Co-leader Patrick Harvie – who has been one of the party’s leaders since 2008 – announced earlier this year he would stand down from the role but continue to be an MSP.
Among the policy pledges outlined by the candidates is universal free bus travel, which was proposed by Greer – who has widely been seen as a contender for the leadership since he was elected to Holyrood at the age of 21.
Mackay – who shepherded landmark legislation placing buffer zones outside abortion clinics through Holyrood – said she believed she can “take the party further and deliver great election results”.
Slater – one of the two only Green members in the UK to serve as a government minister as a result of the Bute House agreement – said the party went from “being a small but effective party to being a significant force in Scottish politics” as she pledged to go further to “build a fairer, more progressive and greener country”.
Ashmole – who has stood for the party at numerous elections but does not hold elected office – said his pitch to members is to put climate change front and centre, urging Scots to “prepare for the worst, strive for the best – and protect what we love”.
Whichever pair wins the final ballot, reports the PA news agency, the leadership team will probably be the ones to lead the party into the 2026 Holyrood election with a view to increasing their MSP cohort from the seven won in 2021.
Updated
The government has instructed a contractor to remove certain jobs at an immigration removal centre from a recruitment website after advertisements for floristry and hairdressing tutors emerged, reports the PA agency.
Outsourcing company Mitie, which manages the Heathrow immigration removal centre (IRC) near the west London airport, listed several roles online including a painting and decorating tutor and gym manager at the IRC for salaries that range between £31,000 and £38,000. One of the job descriptions includes responsibilities to deliver workshops in floristry, cake decorating, balloon-craft and arts and craft activities to “provide a safe, secure, stimulating, supportive and productive environment for residents”.
Home Office minister Seema Malhotra said:
We do not believe all these roles are necessary and have told the Home Office to speak to Mitie to remove them.
The government department has not yet clarified which jobs Mitie has been directed to remove, and a number of roles remain listed on the government’s find-a-job portal, reports the PA news agency.
On its website, Mitie said it aims to “treat those in our care with dignity, decency, and respect” and provide an environment for residents to “engage in activities relevant to them”. Health minister Stephen Kinnock said there had been “excessive interpretation” of contractual obligations.
He told LBC:
My understanding of it is, they’re contractually obliged to have some kind of physical exercise, because you want to make sure that people aren’t falling into ill health, because that just makes it even worse for the taxpayer if we’re having to deal with that kind of thing.
But it seems that there’s been an excessive interpretation of those contractual obligations and Seema Malhotra, the immigration minister, I’m very pleased to say, has rapidly responded to this and instructed Mitie to delete those jobs, and that is a good move on her part.
The Heathrow IRC combines Colnbrook and Harmondsworth removals centres and is, according to Mitie, the largest IRC in Europe with a capacity of 965 residents.
The company has been approached by the PA news agency for comment.
Treasury should tax big banks on quantitative easing windfalls, argues thinktank
Rachel Reeves should levy a new bank tax and urge the Bank of England to halt bond sales to reduce the government’s £22bn-a-year losses from quantitative easing, the IPPR thinktank has argued.
In a report called Fixing the Leak, the IPPR’s associate director for economic policy, Carsten Jung, says the Treasury should rein in the costs of QE as public finances are tight.
“What started as a programme to boost the economy is now a massive drain on taxpayer money,” he said. “Public money is flowing straight into commercial banks’ coffers because of a flawed policy design. While families struggle with rising costs, the government is … [in effect] writing multibillion-pound cheques to bank shareholders.”
The emergency policy, first enacted in 2009 during the global financial crisis, involved buying up £895bn of bonds from the UK’s banks and, in exchange, crediting them with reserves at the Bank of England.
The Bank is now winding down QE – a process known as “quantitative tightening” (QT) – by selling the bonds at a rate of £100bn a year, but these sales are taking place at a loss.
In accordance with a promise from Alistair Darling, then chancellor, the Treasury bears the financial risks of QE, so these losses hit the government’s finances.
In addition, the higher Bank of England base rate, now set at 4% to combat above-target inflation, means the Bank is paying out higher interest rates on banks’ reserves than it is receiving on the bonds it holds. In total, these losses amount to a £22bn-a-year hit to the public finances, according to the IPPR.
Jung calls for the Treasury to tax the big banks on their QE-related reserves, saying the profits of the big four have more than doubled since before the Covid pandemic.
He says such a policy could bring in £8bn a year and sidestep the Bank’s objections to a widely mooted alternative known as “tiered reserves”, which the Bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, has argued could interfere with its job of combating inflation.
Immediate closure of asylum hotels could lead to migrants 'living destitute in the streets', says minister
The immediate closure of asylum hotels could lead to migrants “living destitute in the streets”, a government minister said, as he warned against a “disorderly discharge”.
Health minister Stephen Kinnock told Sky News:
It’s not a question of if we close the hotels, it’s a question of when and how we close the hotels, and what we don’t want to have is a disorderly discharge from every hotel in the country, which would actually have far worse consequences than what we currently have, in terms of the impact that would have on asylum seekers potentially living destitute in the streets.
And I don’t think any one of the communities that are campaigning on these hotels issue want to see that.
So what we are doing is looking to appeal this injunction simply because we’re taking a pragmatic approach to how we want to manage the process, not because we believe that the hotel … per se should stay open.”
Pressed on where the migrants would be moved to if the Bell hotel in Epping were to close, Kinnock said:
We’ve got a whole range of options – disused warehouses, disused office blocks, disused military barracks.
We are looking at every option that we have to manage the discharge, and it’s really important that we do that and put those plans in place, but of course, it’s going to be much more effective if we’re able to do that in a way where we’re controlling the discharge from these hotels.
Later today, we should get the judgment from the three senior judges ruling on whether to overturn a temporary injunction which is to block asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell hotel. It is expected at about 2pm.
In other developments:
The Foreign Office in London summoned Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, at 1pm, in direct response to the severe damage inflicted on the British Council building in Ukraine, government sources said. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, condemned the attacks as “senseless” and accused Russia of “sabotaging hopes of peace”.
Rachel Reeves should levy a new bank tax and urge the Bank of England to halt bond sales to reduce the government’s £22bn-a-year losses from quantitative easing, the IPPR thinktank has argued. In a report called Fixing the Leak, the IPPR’s associate director for economic policy, Carsten Jung, says the Treasury should rein in the costs of QE as public finances are tight.
England needs to “wake up” to its faltering infant vaccination programme, experts have warned, as it was revealed that one in five children start primary school unprotected from serious infectious diseases. The government has urged parents to make sure their children are up to date with their vaccines.
The Reform party’s promise to abolish policies on equality and diversity is “ludicrous” and threatens to take policing and society backwards, one of the country’s most senior chief constables has said. Serena Kennedy retires on Sunday as the chief constable of Merseyside police, after a tumultuous four years in charge. She criticised politicians including the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, for making questionable statements at times of heightened tension, such as immediately after last summer’s Southport riot.
A member of the House of Lords asked a senior British diplomat to help a Ghanaian goldmining venture in which he held shares, claiming it was “in the UK national interest”, the Guardian can disclose. The revelation will add to concerns about apparent breaches of parliamentary lobbying rules by Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army. The peer is already under scrutiny over his lobbying for several companies, leading in two cases to investigations by the Lords’ standards body.
