The Latest Breaking News from Epping

The latest protest outside the Bell Hotel was held on Thursday evening.

Dozens gather outside The Bell Hotel in Epping after recent string of violent protests there – although police describe latest demonstration as ‘peaceful so far’

Councillors worried public demonstrations ‘being infiltrated on the extremes of politics’

Home secretary says Reform UK should back officers’ response to Epping asylum hotel unrest

A group gathered outside The Bell Hotel, Epping, on Thursday evening and shortly after 7.30pm police said the protest had ‘so far been peaceful’.

Claims Essex police force bussed in antiracism activists have been denied but have spread on social media and rightwing news channels

IN FOCUS : What started as a group of locals voicing their grievances has escalated into what has been described as a ‘powder-keg situation’, with fears it could prompt a fresh wave of riots across the country. Holly Evans and Harriette Boucher report

Sixteen people held after disorder at Bell Hotel which began peacefully

Police have issued pictures of two men they want to speak to.

COMMENT: Protesters outside a hotel housing asylum seekers have accused the local force of ‘bussing in’ anti-racism campaigners, a fallacy repeated by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and which has taken hold on social media. But it’s not the police stirring up trouble, says Sean O’Grady

Council leader Chris Whitbread said: ‘Repeated warnings to the Home Office about the unsuitability of both sites have gone unheeded’