British police said they arrested five people yesterday after masked men tried to force their way into a hotel used by asylum-seekers, a day after the government won a court ruling on the use of another hotel to house migrants.
Two groups of anti-asylum protesters marched to the Crowne Plaza Hotel near Heathrow Airport before some demonstrators tried to break in, London’s Metropolitan Police force said.
Two police officers suffered minor injuries, it said.
“We understand strength of feeling on these issues, but where peaceful protest crosses the line into criminality, including injuries to our officers, we will take immediate action,” Commander Adam Slonecki said in a statement.
In a separate incident, three men were arrested outside another hotel used to house asylum-seekers in Epping in east London.
The government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday won a court ruling that overturned a previous court decision that asylum-seekers would have to be evicted from the hotel in Epping where a resident was charged with sexual assault.
Concern about immigration has risen to the top of the political agenda in Britain after an increase in migrants using small boats to reach the country.
More than 32,000 migrants were being housed in around 200 hotels across the country at the end of June, according to government figures.
Despite the Court of Appeal decision, at least 13 other councils are considering pressing ahead with legal action over the use of asylum hotels in their areas.
They include at least four Labour-run authorities, such as Wirral, Stevenage, Tamworth and Rushmoor councils.
Protests and counter-protests were held across several towns and cities yesterday – most were peaceful.
A demonstration outside the Home Office planned by a group calling itself the Great British National Protest failed to materialise when only a handful of people turned up.
Meanwhile, Sky News spoke to protesters who shared a sense of anger about the cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels and feel they are ignored by the government. They strongly reject being identified as “fascists” or “far-right thugs”.
Warnings have been issued by some forces ahead of the demonstrations.
Deb Smith, assistant chief constable of Wiltshire Police, said they had a “proportionate policing operation in place” ahead of a planned protest in Swindon.
“We will always facilitate lawful protest – but we will not tolerate criminal behaviour,” she said in a statement.
On Friday, three judges at the Court of Appeal described the High Court’s interim injunction as “seriously flawed in principle” and said the hotel could continue to be used to house migrants.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged Tory councillors seeking similar injunctions against asylum hotels to “keep going” despite the ruling.
“Local communities should not pay the price for Labour’s total failure on illegal immigration,” Badenoch said.
“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.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also criticised the ruling, claiming that “illegal migrants have more rights than the British people under (Keir) Starmer”.
There have been weeks of protests in Essex after an asylum seeker housed at the Bell Hotel was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl. He denies the allegations.
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