The Epping asylum ruling “plays into Reform’s hands”, experts have warned – and could drive fresh divisions through the Labour Party.

A High Court judgement on Tuesday (19 August) ordered the removal of asylum seekers from The Bell Hotel in Epping following weeks of local unrest . The decision to hand down the temporary injunction was made on the grounds that the hotel did not seek planning permission for change of use to become an asylum hotel.

The decision leaves the Home Office scrambling to rehouse the hotel’s 140 residents by 12 September.

But experts say the implications go far beyond logistics. For Labour, the ruling represents a “serious loss of narrative control”.

“Even though the actual ruling was about planning permission – because that’s what explains everything in Britis

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