The British government policy of housing thousands of “asylum seekers” in hotels was facing severe pressure on Wednesday, as opponents leapt on a court ruling to call for protests and legal action to have them all evicted.
According to a regular tracker of voters’ concerns, immigration has overtaken the economy as the biggest issue amid anger over record numbers of illegal immigrants arriving in small boats across the English Channel, including more than 27,000 this year.
On Tuesday, the High Court in London granted a temporary injunction to stop asylum seekers from being housed in the Bell Hotel in Epping, about 20 miles (32 kilometres) northeast of London in the county of Essex.