‘Divisive language escalated tensions’
The home secretary agreed with the independent MP Rachael Maskell that “divisive language” has played an important role in “escalating tensions and promoting hatred and violence”.
Cooper said Maskell was right to point out these dangers, claiming that people should be able to have disagreements over how our asylum system works without using such language.
Maskell, who was suspended from the Labour party in July, said that “dehumanising and stigmatising” language directed at asylum seekers has “stirred up race hate” among a small group of people.
The situation in Epping is untenable, says local MP
The Conservative MP Neil Hudson said Epping is facing a “tinderbox situation” because of the situation at the Bell Hotel. The MP for Epping Forest mentioned the asylum seekers’ alleged sexual and physical assaults, as well as the frequent protests.
He said: “Our community is in distress. The situation is untenable. This week the schools are back.
“The hotel is in the wrong place, right near a school, and many concerned parents have contacted me. When will the home secretary and the government listen to us, address this issue and do the right and safe thing and close the Bell Hotel immediately.”
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said asylum hotels had to be closed “as swiftly as possible, but said the government would do so in “an orderly and sustainable manner”.
Injunction judge criticised for failing to hear public interest arguments
The judge who issued the injunction ordering asylum seekers to be removed from The Bell Hotel has been criticised by the three Court of Appeal judges who overturned it for failing to hear “public interest arguments” from the home secretary including:
• Economic considerations both local and national
• The UK’s compliance with international humanitarian and legal obligations towards asylum seekers
• To avoid destitution among asylum seekers
• Public safety and the impact on the local community
• Security of the asylum estate nationally and locally
• Local and national policing
• Transparency and accountability of operational and strategic decision-making about where and how asylum seekers are housed
Lord Justice Bean, sitting with two other Appeal Court judges, ruled: “The weight to be attached to, and the range of, public interest arguments rendered it more than merely ‘desirable’ in our judgment that the [Home Office] be enabled to participate in the court process to enable the judge to determine the application from the most informed perspective.”
However, the Home Office said it could not find a barrister to represent it at the injunction application hearing at the High Court last month because it received just three days’ notice.
Appeal judges note alleged criminality of three Epping hotel residents
The judges who overturned the injunction requiring asylum seekers to leave The Bell Hotel noted that one resident was arrested for an alleged arson at the hotel in April; a second is standing trial for an alleged sexual assault on a schoolgirl in July; and a third was arrested last month for another alleged sexual assault.
They said the first protest against the hotel was by local residents on July 11 but as it gained national prominence the gatherings included those who had travelled to the area and there have been alleged “violent and disorderly incidents”.
“The protests are said to have had a detrimental effect not only on those who live in Epping but also on the asylum seekers who are resident in the hotel, many of whom are vulnerable and/or suffering from mental health issues,” the judges said.
The Court of Appeal ruled that although the resident’s “fear of crime” is relevant in considering the injunction it is “outweighed” by “the undesirability of incentivising protests” and “a range of public interest factors”.
Court of Appeal judges issue full judgment regarding Epping hotel
The judges who lifted the injunction banning The Bell Hotel in Epping from housing asylum seekers have said: “We are not concerned with the merits of government policy in relation to the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers, in hotels or otherwise.”
The Home Office successfully appealed the injunction, saying Yvette Cooper’s duties under human rights law outweighed local residents’ concerns about safety and a breach of planning regulations.
The three Court of Appeal judges issued their full judgment this afternoon after giving a summary of their ruling on Friday.
The judges said Mr Justice Eyre’s assessment of “the balance of convenience” before issuing the injunction — which ordered the 138 male asylum seekers to leave by September 12 — was “seriously flawed in principle”.
They ruled: “The Epping residents’ fear of crime was properly taken into account by the judge as a factor in favour of the grant of an injunction; he described it as being of limited weight.”
21,000 refugee family reunion visas issued in year to June
Home Office figures show that in the year to June 2025, there were 20,817 refugee family reunion visas issued.
Of those, 19,280 — 93 per cent — were issued to children or adult women. Fifty-six per cent — 11,641 visas — were issued to children.
Two thirds of visas were issued to nationals of five countries: Syria (3,808); Iran (3,619); Afghanistan (2,569); Eritrea (1,963); and Sudan (1,804).
‘Family reunion is a lifeline’
Refugee charities have warned that the new restrictions for refugee family members will fuel further illegal immigration in order to join their family in the UK.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “Far from stopping people taking dangerous journeys to cross the Channel, these changes will only push more desperate people into the arms of smugglers in an effort to reunite with loved ones.
“This is not who we are as a country — we should not be forcing children to grow up without their parents. Family reunion is a lifeline. It enables refugees to rebuild their lives, integrate more quickly and contribute to their communities.”
Cooper mocks Tories’ £700m Rwanda solution
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said “little tweaks” to the asylum system by the Starmer government would not stem the flow of asylum seekers across the Channel.
“The only way these crossings will stop and the only way to reclaim control of our border is if everyone who crosses the border knows they will be returned,” he told the Commons.
“If the government is serious, that is what they will do.”
In her reply, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, ridiculed the former Conservative government’s “Rwanda solution” for asylum seekers which cost taxpayers £700 million and returned no one.
“This government will fix the chaos we inherited and fix the asylum system for everybody,” she said.
Philp says Labour cannot blame Tories any more
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the Starmer government had been in power for more than a year and could not keep blaming the former Conservative government.
He said Yvette Cooper had failed to mention “smashing the gangs” in her speech to the Commons or the record numbers crossing the English Channel.
“Far from smashing the gangs, so far 29,003 illegal immigrants have crossed the English Channel this year. That is the worst in history,” he told the Commons.
“That is not success, that is failure. This government is failing and everyone can see it. That is why there are protests up and down the country.”
He said 75 per cent of the public think the government is handling the issue of asylum seekers badly.
Government committed to closing asylum hotels by 2029
The home secretary said the government remained committed to closing asylum hotels by 2029.
Yvette Cooper said she understood why local councils and communities did not want asylum hotels in their neighbourhoods.
“We need to close all asylum hotels but this needs to be done in an orderly manner,” she told the House of Commons.
Cooper said the government was committed to “restore the confidence” in the asylum system and end the “asylum chaos” brought about by the Tories.
But in a dig at the Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, she said the Labour government would not attempt to use the issue for political gain.
Cooper touts ‘radical’ asylum reforms
Cooper said the new “radical” asylum reforms, including an overhaul of the appeal system, would help stem the flow of asylum seekers.
She said the issue of family migration needed to be addressed, with local councils saying 25 per cent of requests for housing were linked to family reunion.
“That is not sustainable,” she told the Commons.
Cooper said the Starmer government was committed to international law, but reforms were needed, including suspending family rules for asylum seekers.
“We should be clear, international law is important,” she said.
“But we also need the interpretation of international law to keep pace with reality.”
Cooper: Tories left asylum system in crisis
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has blamed the former Conservative government for leaving the asylum system in “crisis”.
“The previous government has lost control of the system,” she told the Commons.
Cooper said substantial reforms had to be introduced to bring the system back into line, saying if the changes had not been made “thousands” more people would be in asylum hotels. “The system has to be controlled and managed,” she said.
Cooper said the first return of asylum seekers in the “one in, one out” swap with the French government would begin later this month. She said: “If anyone wants to take this dangerous journey on small boats, we want to see them returned.”
Protests continued over the weekend
Several protests took place outside asylum hotels over the weekend after Friday’s Court of Appeal decision overturning the High Court injunction on the use of The Bell Hotel in Epping.
A police officer was punched in the face after masked demonstrators clashed with police outside a migrant hotel in Canary Wharf.
The Metropolitan Police said it had made four arrests after masked demonstrators became “aggressive” at an anti-asylum protest outside a hotel in Canary Wharf, the heart of London’s financial district.
Three people were arrested after about 200 demonstrators gathered outside the Epping Forest district council building on Sunday evening.
Hertfordshire man pleads not guilty to violent disorder at Epping hotel
A man has pleaded not guilty to violent disorder and to the criminal damage of a police vehicle, after a demonstration outside an asylum hotel in Essex on July 17.
Charlie Land, 23, of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, is alleged to have kicked the wing mirror of a police carrier, jumped on the bonnet and kicked the windscreen, causing it to crack, and threw a traffic cone outside The Bell Hotel in Epping.
Land was bailed at Chelmsford crown court today until a further case management hearing on September 22, when a date for trial will be considered.
Multiple demonstrations have been held outside The Bell Hotel since July 13, after an asylum seeker was charged with the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.
PM wants to expedite the emptying of asylum hotels
Sir Keir Starmer has revealed that he wants to speed up efforts to close asylum hotels and he insisted he “completely” gets people’s concerns about illegal immigration.
The government had pledged to end the use of migrant hotels by the end of the parliament, which could be as late as 2029.
However, in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley, the prime minister said he wants to “bring that forward”.
He insisted that he understood why people had taken to protesting outside hotels and said: “We have to have control of our borders, and I completely get it, and I’m determined that whether it’s people crossing in the first place, whether it’s people in asylum hotels, or whether it’s returning people, we absolutely have to deal with this.”
Starmer was asked if he would be comfortable with his daughter having to walk past an asylum hotel. He said: “Local people by and large do not want these hotels in their towns, in their place, nor do I. I’m completely at one with them on that.”
The prime minister accused Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party of “feeding on grievance” with his “fanciful ideas” to deport 600,000 illegal migrants over a five-year period.
Lowest number of August crossings since 2021
The number of migrants crossing the Channel in August was 3,567, Home Office figures have confirmed today. That is the lowest number recorded in August since 2021.
The Home Office has attributed this to the seizure of 45 dinghies on the Turkey-Bulgaria border in two raids jointly led by the National Crime Agency and their Bulgarian counterparts.
In one raid on July 26, Bulgarian border police found 25 dinghies due to be transported across Europe to the Channel. Each boat, when inflated, is about eight metres long and would typically be used to carry 50-60 people.
Government plans will bring more ‘control’ over immigration
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said overnight that the government’s plans will bring more control over immigration and ensure rules are followed by those who come.
She again blamed the Conservative Party for leaving an immigration system in “complete chaos and disarray”.
Before announcing the changes to family reunion rules, Cooper said: “Britain has a proud record of giving sanctuary to those fleeing persecution, including in recent years from Ukraine and Hong Kong, and we must do more to help students from Gaza.
“But the whole system needs to be properly controlled and managed, so the rules are respected and enforced, and so governments — not criminal gangs — decide who comes to the UK.”
Using Article 3 to avoid deportation
Among dozens of cases in which migrants have used Article 3 to avoid deportation this year was an Iraqi asylum seeker who successfully fought attempts to deport him back to Iraq by claiming he would be violently attacked by his family because of his tattoos.
Another case involved a Bangladeshi man who had served 12 years in prison for murdering his wife who successfully appealed against the Home Office’s attempts to deport him by claiming he was a Christian convert and that he would be at risk in his predominantly Muslim community in Bangladesh. A judge allowed him to stay in the UK based on Article 3 of the ECHR.
Home secretary to clarify Article 8 rules
Yvette Cooper will also use her statement to set out the government’s plans to restrict the right of failed asylum seekers and foreign criminals to use Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights to block deportation.
Article 8 enshrines the right to a family life and this can be used by migrants to claim there are “exceptional circumstances” for their case to remain in the UK outside of the normal immigration rules.
The Home Office has said there are too many cases in which people were successfully proving their situation was “exceptional” to Britain’s family migration rules, which dictate who can and cannot join family in the UK or remain with family in the country despite breaking the law.
The home secretary is undertaking a review, which is expected to strengthen the public interest test for Article 8 claims relating to family rights.
She will clarify Article 8 rules and set out how they should apply in different immigration routes so that fewer cases are treated as exceptional.
This will set out when and how a person can “genuinely make a claim on the basis of exceptional circumstances”.
Cooper to give update on migrant hotels
Yvette Cooper is also expected to give an update on the government’s plans to end the use of migrant hotels, although she will stick to the target of meeting the pledge by 2029.
On Friday, the home secretary avoided a catastrophic legal defeat after the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court injunction on the use of the Bell Hotel in Epping, which would have forced the Home Office to relocate 138 migrants and triggered further legal challenges.
But it still faces pressure to move the 32,059 migrants out of hotels and may have to move quicker if it loses the substantive High Court hearing on the Epping hotel in October.
Epping Forest district council will also announce later today whether it intends to challenge Friday’s Court of Appeal decision in the Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, which if successful, could reinstate the injunction on the use of the Bell Hotel.
Labour push to reclaim control of narrative on immigration
Yvette Cooper’s update in the House of Commons later today signals an effort by the government to seize back control of the narrative on immigration after a summer dominated by protests outside hotels and a political landscape dominated by Nigel Farage.
A record high of 29,053 migrants have arrived in small boats so far this year, 47 per cent higher than this time last year. This is despite Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to “smash the gangs” and several high profile announcements of measures to crackdown on crossings.
The prime minister hopes that the first migrants will be deported to France under his new one-in, one-out migrant returns deal in the coming weeks, although so far those detained for the scheme account for just 3 per cent of all small boat arrivals.
• Read in full: Six ways Starmer hopes to stop migrants crossing Channel
No 10 rejects calls to leave ECHR
Downing Street has insisted the UK will not seek to leave or suspend the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) amid growing calls for action.
The former Labour home secretary Jack Straw has called for the government to decouple its laws from the convention while Lord Blunkett, another former Labour home secretary, has called for Sir Keir Starmer to suspend the ECHR in order to deport thousands of illegal migrants.
Nigel Farage has said a Reform UK government would withdraw the UK from the convention if it wins the next election.
However, the prime minister’s spokesman said: “The government has been clear that Britain will remain a member of the ECHR and that shutting ourselves off from the international stage will make it harder, not easier, to return people, and you do not strike international agreements by tearing up international agreements.”
How number of family reunion visas has soared
The changes to the refugee family reunion route comes after a fivefold increase in those coming into the UK on the visa.
In the year to June, a total of 21,967 family reunion visas were granted, the highest number on record since the figures began being collected in 2005. More than half of these were children.
The Home Office has attributed this increase due to the sharp increase in the number of people granted asylum in late 2023. Some 55,000 were granted asylum as the Home Office oversaw an acceleration in its casework to meet Rishi Sunak’s pledge to clear the asylum backlog. They have since started bringing their family members to the UK.
Cooper to tighten rules on migrants bringing families
Migrants granted asylum in the UK will be forced to wait several years before bringing their family to the UK under a fresh crackdown to be announced this afternoon by the home secretary.
Yvette Cooper will announce changes that will bring Britain in line with other European countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria, where refugees must wait up to three years before they can be joined by family members overseas.
The move will add to measures already announced in the government’s immigration white paper in May, which will require a higher level of English language skills and tougher financial requirements for family members wanting to join refugees in the UK.
It will bring the rules for the family refugee reunion route with other visa routes, such as rules that require a British citizen to have a minimum income of £29,000 a year in order to bring a foreign partner to the UK.