Asylum hotel ruling wont feel like a victory at Home Office

The Court of Appeal ruling that will allow asylum seekers to stay at the Bell Hotel, in Epping, is a technical victory for the government.

But for many Labour strategists, whichever way the ruling had gone, today was a case of "heads they win, tails we lose".

Lets begin with the good news for ministers.

They will be breathing a sigh of relief having feared that, had they lost this appeal, other local councils could bring legal challenges against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers in their area.

That would have risked throwing the whole system into chaos because there are thousands of asylum seekers awaiting decisions on their cases and limited accommodation options.

But the government has a legal duty to keep them off the streets.

This court ruling effectively resets the situation.

It gives ministers the time to fulfil their promise of removing all asylum seekers from hotels in "a controlled and orderly way" by 2029.

But there will not be any champagne corks popping in the Home Office.

Thats because in order to uphold their legal responsibility to protect asylum seekers, they have had to argue in favour of using hotels to house them.

That is already being seized on by Labours political opponents.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: "Keir Starmer has shown that he puts the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of the British people who just want to feel safe in their towns and communities."

She urged Tory councils to continue to bring legal cases against asylum hotels.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed the government had used European human rights legislation "against the people of Epping".

He added: "Illegal migrants have more rights than the British people under Starmer."

For a government under pressure after a summer of small boat crossings, that is a difficult position to be in.

As one Labour advisor told me, there will now be pressure on ministers to take more radical action to counter the kind of accusations they are facing.

That could include swapping some hotels for former military barracks or disused warehouses, as the health minister Stephen Kinnock suggested earlier on Sky News.

But such a move could further antagonise those voters on the left who believe the UK should be offering more support asylum seekers.

This court ruling might have been the climax to a difficult summer for the government. But it also marks the start of an autumn that doesnt look much easier.

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