Home Office says injunction against Epping hotel would have ‘serious impact’ on UK’s ability to house asylum seekers
Becca Jones, director of asylum support in the Home Office, said it would be “significant” to lose 152 bedspaces from the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex.
The PA news agency reports that in a witness statement referenced in the court of appeal hearing on Thursday, Jones said there were 103,684 accommodated asylum-seekers as of 31 March, higher than in 2024. She said:
In this context, and at this time, the loss of 152 bedspaces is significant when considering the Home Office’s legal duty.
The availability of the hotel is also important in enabling the secretary of state to meet her duty to accommodate future asylum seekers going forward, in circumstances where the pressure on available properties is significant and increasing.
Jones continued in her witness statement that the interim injunction would risk “encouraging other local authorities” to seek similar injunctions. She said:
The Home Office is aware that there have been a series of protests in the local area about the use of the hotel, including some disorder in previous weeks. However, following appropriate police intervention, the situation is now understood to be one of managed, peaceful protest.
Jones continued:
The Home Office understands that local residents have concerns about the use of the hotel, which have been heard. However, those concerns must be viewed in the context of demands on the accommodation estate.
She concluded:
Granting the interim injunction sought risks setting a precedent which would have a serious impact on the secretary of state’s ability to house vulnerable people, both by encouraging other local authorities to seek such interim injunctions pending the outcome of substantive planning law complaints and those who seek to target asylum accommodation in acts of public disorder.
Key events
The first session of parliament will run until Spring 2026, the government has announced. The session, which began in July last year after Labour won the election, could run to nearly two years long as a result of the announcement.
Sessions of parliament usually last for around a year, but ministers are hoping to progress as many pieces of legislation into law before the current one ends.
Commons leader Lucy Powell said:
By any measure, this is a bumper first parliamentary session delivering on the government’s plan for change. No new incoming government has set out such an ambitious legislative programme in its first year, that delivers for working people.
We said we would tackle the cost-of-living crisis, put power and opportunity back into the hands of people and take on the vested interests holding us back – and that’s what we are doing. This autumn is going to be a busy term for parliamentarians.
Setting up GB Energy, stopping water bosses’ bonuses, new rights for workers and renters, public ownership of rail, better buses, protecting local football clubs, saving British steel, planning reform for new homes, new police powers to tackle antisocial behaviour and strengthening our borders are just some of the real change we’re delivering so far.
Robin Green, for Epping Forest district council, told the court of appeal that the authority had not previously taken enforcement action against Somani Hotels over the use of the Bell hotel in Epping to house asylum seekers because it had been “unproblematic”.
The hotel has housed single adult male asylum seekers since April 2025, and from October 2022 to April 2024. It had also accommodated asylum seekers from May 2020 to March 2021, but this year marked the first time the council had taken enforcement action when it issued legal proceedings earlier this month.
According to the PA news agency, Green told the court that enforcement action had not been taken before because previous periods of the hotel being used as asylum seeker accommodation were “tolerable”.
Green said:
A decision not to take enforcement action at one point in time does not mean it cannot take a different decision at a later point in time if circumstances change. On the evidence, circumstances had undoubtedly changed.
Chemical companies lobbying MPs not to ban Pfas
Chemical firms are lobbying MPs not to ban “forever chemicals” in the same way as proposed in the EU, using arguments disputed by scientists and described as “Big Tobacco playbook” tactics, it can be revealed.
Pfas, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and commonly known as forever chemicals owing to their persistence in the environment, are a family of about 10,000 chemicals, some of which have been linked to a wide range of serious illnesses, including certain cancers. They are used across multiple industries, from cosmetics to firefighting.
In May, MPs on the environmental audit committee (EAC) launched an inquiry into Pfas, with a call for evidence on the uses and risks of the substances, and options for how to regulate them.
Exclusive analysis by the Ends Report and the Guardian of the responses submitted to the parliamentary committee has revealed major chemical producers, from UK-based companies to large US corporations, urging parliamentarians that any incoming UK Pfas regulation should be more limited than that currently proposed in the EU, which targets the whole family of chemicals.
Specifically, many of the responses from chemicals firms analysed by the Ends Report call for a commonly used type of Pfas called fluoropolymers – used across a broad range of industries including domestic cookware production, such as non-stick frying pans, and pharmaceuticals – to be spared the same kind of regulation as other types of forever chemicals, on the basis that they are not as harmful.
The validity of this argument, being made on record to UK politicians for the first time, has been disputed by scientists, with one stating that the chemicals industry is “copying the Big Tobacco playbook”.
Reform MSP who defected from Tories should stand down, says Swinney
The Reform MSP who defected from the Tories this week should stand down, first minister John Swinney has said, reports the PA news agency.
Graham Simpson announced the move at a press conference alongside Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Wednesday.
Speaking on Thursday, Swinney called on Simpson to quit Holyrood, while also hitting out at the “obnoxiousness” of his new party leader’s stance on immigration, which he said was “undermining our legitimate economic aspirations”.
The first minister pointed to a members’ bill proposed by Simpson which would create a recall mechanism for MSPs who have been jailed or suspended from Holyrood for more than 10 sitting days. Swinney said:
Graham Simpson is the author of a bill about recalling members of parliament when they do things that people disapprove of.
I think there’ll be Conservative voters in central Scotland who will be thinking ‘what is the guy I voted for doing now representing Farage?’
The hypocrisy of Graham Simpson is absolutely legendary on this – the author of the bill on recall now sits for a different political party, so that hypocrisy is just clearly visible.
Asked if Simpson should stand down, the first minister said: “Yes, I think he should.”
Simpson was elected to the central Scotland region in 2016 as a Conservative MSP and if he was to stand down, his former party would get to select his replacement.
The first minister also hit out at Reform’s stance on immigration after a new poll this week suggested the issue had moved into the top three most important to Scots. Swinney said:
I think it’s important that we have a reasoned debate about migration in our country.
Scotland currently today faces a problem, which is that we have a declining working-age population.
We need to have more people in Scotland working and contributing to our economy. I talk to sectors right across the country who are short of staff and need more staff to be recruited to deliver the services they want to deliver, so we need to attract more people to come to Scotland.
Yet the immigration debate that has been fuelled by the obnoxiousness of Nigel Farage is undermining our legitimate economic aspirations to boost our population and to grow our economy.
With Reform continuing to surge in the polls and Farage targeting the SNP, the first minister said he remains “very confident” Scots will be more interested in his party’s record in government over the past 18 years than Reform.
Simpson’s defection came 24 hours before former Labour councillor in Glasgow Audrey Dempsey announced she was joining Reform (see 11.14am BST).
Robin Green, appearing for Epping Forest district council at the court of appeal, said that the Home Office should not be involved in the case as it “came too late to the party”, reports the PA news agency.
He also said the council took a decision to issue injunction proceedings against Somani Hotels on 5 August, several days before it filed documents at the high court on 12 August.
Lord Justice Bean responded:
Why not send a letter before action [to Somani Hotels] saying ‘unless you cease this use immediately, we are going to issue high court proceedings?’
Green replied that “a letter was not sent, and perhaps a letter should have been sent”, but said that Mr Justice Eyre “was aware of all this” when he made his decision to issue the temporary injunction.
Davey calls on Blair to give evidence in parliament after White House Gaza meeting
Responding to Tony Blair’s meeting at the White House with the Trump administration discussing the war in Gaza, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called on the former UK prime minister to give evidence in parliament about his discussions.
In a statement on Thursday, Davey said:
Tony Blair needs to come before parliament to give evidence about his discussions with the Trump administration about the ongoing war and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
If he has special insight into Trump’s intentions, it’s only right that parliament and the government are made privy to this.
Trump has a unique power to help end this war, get the hostages out, and get the desperately needed aid in to relieve the horrendous human suffering in Gaza. We must leverage all the information and resources at our disposal to make him do the right thing.
Immigration minister dismisses Reform UK’s immigration plans as ‘gimmicks’
Immigration minister Seema Malhotra has dismissed Reform’s plans to tackle immigration numbers as “gimmicks” that have “unravelled on basic facts and figures”.
The MP for Feltham and Heston said that she would not comment on Nigel Farage’s proposed deal with Afghanistan’s Taliban or “individual countries”.
Speaking in Portsmouth, Malhotra told the PA news agency:
I’m not commenting on individual countries in this way.
What I will say is that we have a policy of returning people to their countries where they are safe or, as we’ve seen in the agreement with France, to safe third countries.
What’s also the case is that we’ve seen Reform’s plan unravel after just two days, and if that’s their specialist subject to see their plans unravel on the basic facts and figures, one has to ask the question about what other plans they might have.
Whether it’s for our NHS or any other areas of our public services, what we are committed to is taking the serious action that we need and not gimmicks.
To make sure that we are stepping up the action we’re taking to disrupt the activity of these evil criminal gangs to make sure that we are returning those with no right to be here – over 35,000 since the last election.
To make sure that we’re bringing in new powers for law enforcement and intelligence sharing with other countries through legislation we’re bringing forward in parliament that both the Tories and Reform have voted against, and to make sure that we are urgently speeding up the processing of asylum cases, a backlog that the last government left behind in a system that was utterly chaotic.
She continued:
Through these steps, I think what people will see is that we’re taking the action we need, and that we will see a closure to asylum hotels and to this evil criminal trade.
When asked if the government had alternative plans to hotels for housing asylum-seekers, Maholtra said:
What we are doing is making sure that we’re reducing the need for hotels. That’s the critical bit of this and we’ve got to do that by working with communities across the country, making sure that what we’re doing is processing asylum cases much more quickly, making sure that we’re returning those with no right to be here, and making sure that we are delivering on our commitment that we made in our manifesto to see a closure to all asylum hotels in this parliament.
We’ve already seen a drop from the 400 asylum hotels that we saw open at their peak under the previous government, and seeing that now almost halved to just over 200, this is really important that we continue the work that we’re doing to make sure that we see a closure of all asylum hotels in line with our manifesto commitment in this parliament. That’s what we’re determined to do.
When asked if the government was reliant on hotels, she said:
Well, we’re also reliant on making sure that we’re clearing the backlog, because the number of people in hotels is as a result of the asylum cases that are open.
What we need to do is to continue that step change that we’ve seen processing asylum cases much more quickly, making sure that we’re seeing those returns for people who have no right to be here as a result also of the returns agreements that we have been signing, whether that’s with Iraq, whether that’s with France. Whether that’s also in relation to the agreements and cooperation agreements we’ve got with other countries like Vietnam.
When we see the results of all of those actions, when we see the new powers that are going to be coming in as a result of new legislation that we have brought in to parliament to increase intelligence sharing, to make it an offence to even supply criminal gangs, we are going to be doing much more than the previous government.
We’re seeing the arrests step up of those involved in criminal gangs, and we’re seeing that this evil criminal trade is disrupted that we are seeing put lives at risk and undermine our border security.
Home Office says injunction against Epping hotel would have ‘serious impact’ on UK’s ability to house asylum seekers
Becca Jones, director of asylum support in the Home Office, said it would be “significant” to lose 152 bedspaces from the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex.
The PA news agency reports that in a witness statement referenced in the court of appeal hearing on Thursday, Jones said there were 103,684 accommodated asylum-seekers as of 31 March, higher than in 2024. She said:
In this context, and at this time, the loss of 152 bedspaces is significant when considering the Home Office’s legal duty.
The availability of the hotel is also important in enabling the secretary of state to meet her duty to accommodate future asylum seekers going forward, in circumstances where the pressure on available properties is significant and increasing.
Jones continued in her witness statement that the interim injunction would risk “encouraging other local authorities” to seek similar injunctions. She said:
The Home Office is aware that there have been a series of protests in the local area about the use of the hotel, including some disorder in previous weeks. However, following appropriate police intervention, the situation is now understood to be one of managed, peaceful protest.
Jones continued:
The Home Office understands that local residents have concerns about the use of the hotel, which have been heard. However, those concerns must be viewed in the context of demands on the accommodation estate.
She concluded:
Granting the interim injunction sought risks setting a precedent which would have a serious impact on the secretary of state’s ability to house vulnerable people, both by encouraging other local authorities to seek such interim injunctions pending the outcome of substantive planning law complaints and those who seek to target asylum accommodation in acts of public disorder.
Trade minister Douglas Alexander will promote the UK as an economic partner during a visit to Japan and South Korea, starting on Thursday.
According to the PA news agency, in Japan, Alexander will give a speech at the Pacific Future forum, declaring that the UK is open for business and can be an indispensable partner in upholding global order.
He will also join defence secretary John Healey onboard aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales to mark the deployment of the UK carrier strike group – which consists of Royal Navy warships, submarines and aircraft.
In South Korea, Alexander will meet the Korean trade minister, Yeo Han-Koo, to work on the UK-South Korea free trade agreement, and will affirm the aim to conclude negotiations this year. A free trade agreement with South Korea could aid sectors such as financial services, legal services and health, while helping British companies such as Diageo expand in Korea.
The minister will also meet the CEOs of LG AI Lab to discuss a recently signed partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group.
Alexander said:
Today’s world is one where barriers to trade are going up and geopolitical divides are deepening, resulting in higher costs for consumers and practical challenges for businesses.
Our new trade and industrial strategies, based on a sense of pragmatic patriotism, provides the compass by which we will navigate today’s storms.
From the deck of HMS Prince of Wales to the negotiating table in Seoul, the UK is forging durable economic partnerships which will help put more money in people’s pockets as part of the plan for change.
Foreign Office summons Russian ambassador after overnight strikes on Kyiv
Further to the previous post, the Foreign Office has confirmed that it summoned the Russian ambassador after strikes on Kyiv overnight killed civilians and damaged the British Council building in the Ukrainian capital.
Foreign secretary David Lammy posted on X:
Putin’s strikes last night killed civilians, destroyed homes and damaged buildings, including the British Council and EU delegation in Kyiv.
We have summoned the Russian Ambassador. The killing and destruction must stop.
According to reports, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, is expected to be summoned by the British Foreign Office after Russian strikes on Kyiv killed at least 14 people and damaged the British Council’s office in the Ukrainian capital.
You can read more on this and the latest developments in Ukraine in our Europe live blog.
In case you missed it, Sky News shared a YouGov poll yesterday that showed that Labour has sunk to its lowest approval rating since July 2019.
In the poll Labour is on just 20% of the intended voting intention, eight points behind Reform and just three points ahead of the Conservatives on 17% of the vote.
Nigel Farage, Reform UK’s leader, has been making political capital over the small boats issue and has dominated headlines over the summer while the government has been relatively quiet and sometimes confused on its messaging.
Earlier this month, the number of people who have arrived in the UK on small boats across the Channel since Keir Starmer won the general election last July hit 50,000, a milestone the prime minister and his team did not want to reach so soon.
Labour record their lowest poll rating since July 2019 in YouGov’s latest voting intention (25-26 August 2025)
Ref: 28% (no change from 17-18 August)
Lab: 20% (-1)
Con: 17% (-1)
Lib Dem: 16% (+1)
Green: 11% (+1)
SNP: 3% (=) pic.twitter.com/fsqK1W82Vc— YouGov (@YouGov) August 27, 2025
Overdiagnosis of children overlooks that growing up is ‘messy and uneven’, says Jeremy Hunt
Sally Weale
Children and young people are being overdiagnosed with mental health conditions in a society that has lost sight of the reality that child development is “messy and uneven”, the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.
He is the latest senior figure to add his voice to calls for a radical overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system in England.
Hunt said in his half decade as health secretary, he witnessed “an alarming escalation” in the prevalence and severity of mental ill-health among young people, as well as significant increases in diagnoses of neurodevelopmental conditions.
In a foreword to a new report by the centre-right thinktank Policy Exchange, Hunt said:
Mental ill-health and neurodiversity now accounts for more than half of the post-pandemic increase we have seen in claimants of disability benefit. Spending on Send provision has sky-rocketed and risks the financial sustainability of local government.
Rather than assuming that more money or more of the same is the answer, we need to ask more fundamental questions. Is a cash transfer – or a label that means young people are treated and come to see themselves as different – the right way to help them?
He added:
Across the political spectrum, and amongst a growing range of practitioners, it is now recognised that there is a level of ‘overdiagnosis’ [in] our system. We need to cut through the complexity to better understand the drivers of demand we are seeing.
Hunt, who is Conservative MP for Godalming and Ash, and has also served as chancellor and foreign secretary under the Conservatives, said:
As a society, we seem to have lost sight of the fundamental reality that child development is a messy and uneven process.
Our laudable desire to ensure young people are happy and well-supported is at times manifesting in excessive impulses to medicalise and diagnose the routine in a manner that can undercut grit and resilience.
The government is expected to publish a white paper later this year detailing how it plans to reform the Send system. Parents are concerned that education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – legally enforceable documents that detail a child or young person’s needs, and the support they require – will be targeted.
Keir Starmer replaces key No 10 aide with more changes to come
Jessica Elgot
Keir Starmer has begun a shake-up of No 10, including replacing an aide whose appointment had been a key battleground amid the departure of Sue Gray last autumn.
Nin Pandit, the prime minister’s top civil service aide, is to leave her role after less than 10 months. Sources at No 10 denied she had quit and said she would step into a new policy delivery role and the prime minister would now take more direct control of delivery.
The Guardian understands that Pandit, once praised by Dominic Cummings as one of “the brilliant women around the table” who would have done the job of prime minister “10 times better” than Boris Johnson, will be replaced by Dan York-Smith as Starmer’s principal private secretary.
York-Smith’s appointment will be taken as a sign of No 10’s need to beef up economic expertise. It has long been rumoured that Starmer wanted to appoint more economic and infrastructure experts to his policy unit but no appointments have been announced. York-Smith is an experienced Treasury official, who has led economic strategy for six chancellors and oversees tax and welfare at the Treasury.
Downing Street sources said there were more changes to come but said they believed the cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald, was safe in his role, despite briefings that several colleagues believe he has been ineffective.
A No 10 source denied Pandit was being sacked or demoted and said she had the full confidence of the prime minister and would remain a key part of the operation. Her new role has not yet been named.
Deputy first minister Kate Forbes has announced funding to help support the Scots language – which she said is a “treasured part” of Scotland’s history and culture, reports the PA news agency.
Scottish government funding of £650,000 will help 11 organisations working to promote the language across the country. One of those receiving cash is Scots Hoose Yaldi, which will get almost £89,000 to help it provide free resources to schools and nurseries.
During a visit to the Bill and Bain printworks in Glasgow, Forbes unveiled the project’s new children’s book, the Auchertermichty Aw-Stars, which is written in Scots and features plays about a youth football club. The book is one of a series of titles, including comics, which will be printed and distributed to young people as a result of government cash. Forbes said:
These plays are part of a series of free Scots books, comics and poems which aim to provide young people with a better understanding of the language so that it can continue to grow.
Scots is a treasured part of our history, heritage and culture. It enriches communities and research shows that learning the language benefits young people’s literacy skills and confidence.
Other initiatives that will receive support include new Open University courses to help school teachers introduce Scots into their lessons, which will benefit from almost £85,000. The largest sum of cash – £231,000 – will go to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language project, which aims to detail the origins and meaning of every Scots word.
The funding comes after the latest census statistics showed that in 2022, 2,444,659 people across the country had some skills in Scots – up from 515,215 in 2011. The number of youngsters aged 15 or under with some ability in Scots had increased from 48,310 to 260,356 over the same period.
The funding is being awarded through the Scots language development fund in 2025-26, with Forbes saying the total amount represents a £150,000 increase when compared with last year. She also noted that ministers had brought forward the Scottish Languages Act to “establish Scots and Gaelic as official languages and introduce teaching standards for Scots”, with this legislation passed in June 2025.
Former Labour councillor in Glasgow joins Reform UK
Severin Carrell
A former Labour councillor in Glasgow who quit the party after being accused of making racist remarks has joined Reform UK, making her the seventeenth Scottish councillor to defect to them.
Reform UK announced on Thursday morning that Audrey Dempsey, who now sits as an independent on Glasgow city council, had become its latest elected member.
Dempsey resigned as a Labour councillor in April last year after she was suspended for allegedly making racist remarks, and claiming that racist attacks on white children and teachers were rising in the city’s schools.
She claimed at the time she had been raising concerns about the party’s directions for some time. “Instead the reaction of some has been to attack my character and reputation with cowardly leaks that have deliberately been twisted to fit a narrative,” she said in a statement on X.
Dempsey, who runs a charity focusing on poverty among families in north Glasgow, is now the second Reform UK councillor in Glasgow and the second ex-Labour councillor to defect.
She said Keir Starmer, the prime minister, and Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, ran the party as a “self-serving clique”. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, was different, she said.
Reform UK and Nigel Farage aren’t just challenging the status quo; they’re ripping it apart. They’re focused on tackling illegal migration, standing up for women and girls’ safety and transforming working people lives for the better. That’s what I’ve always done in my professional life and specifically designed my charity to put Glasgow’s people first.
Unlike Reform’s electoral successes in England and Wales, none of its 17 Scottish councillors has yet won an election for Reform UK; most have defected from the Conservatives or as independents. Those 17 representatives make up 1.4% of the 1,226 councillors sitting in Scotland.
On Tuesday, Nigel Farage, the party’s UK leader, unveiled a Scottish Conservative MSP, Graham Simpson, as its latest recruit.
Simpson is the party’s sole MSP at Holyrood, but recent polling suggests Reform UK could win a number of seats at the next Holyrood election in May 2026 after leap-frogging the Tories and edging close to Labour’s level of support.
Government funding for free meals and activities during summer holidays for low-income families scheme extended
Government funding for a programme which offers children from low-income families free meals and activities during the school holidays will be extended, reports the PA news agency.
The Department for Education (DfE) has said working families on free school meals could save more than £800 a year thanks to its investment into holiday clubs. According to the PA news agency, £600m is being invested to extend the holiday activity and food (HAF) programme – which funds councils to provide holiday childcare, activities and food for children eligible for free school meals – for another three years.
It comes as working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours a week of funded childcare for children older than nine months from Monday. With just days to go until the full rollout, education secretary Bridget Phillipson has called on eligible parents in England to “take up” the offer.
The expansion of funded childcare – which was introduced by the Conservative government – began being rolled out in England in April last year for working parents of two-year-olds. Working parents of children older than nine months are now also able to access 15 hours of funded childcare a week during term time, before the full rollout of 30 hours a week to all eligible families from next week.
The HAF programme – for school-age children from reception to year 11 – helps parents to make savings of more than £300 a year, the DfE said.
In July, the Coram Family and Childcare charity called for the HAF programme to be maintained after March 2026 to ensure disadvantaged children have childcare during school holidays.
Andrew Forsey, national director of Feeding Britain, said:
Today’s news will be welcomed by hundreds of thousands of parents across England. The support provided to children from lower incomes through the holiday activities fund eases the pressure on family budgets during the school holidays, enhances their access to enriching and physical activities, and gives them a healthy meal each day during the school holidays.
This delivers a raft of benefits for children and their families, so it is excellent news that the government is extending this provision for a further three years.
Phillipson said:
Giving every child the best start in life is my number one priority, which is why we are delivering on our commitment to provide hundreds of thousands of children with 30 hours government-funded early education.
Whether it’s to save up to £7,500 a year, support parents to get back to work or reduce the pressure on grandparents who so often have to step in, the benefits are widespread.
The offer is just around the corner, and so I’m urging every eligible parent who wants it, to take it up.
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