Five people have been arrested after a group of masked men tried to storm a hotel housing asylum seekers in west London.
It comes as demonstrations have taken place at hotels across the country today after the Government won a court challenge on Friday, meaning asylum seekers can continue to be housed at the Bell Hotel in Essex.
The Metropolitan Police said a group of masked protestors attempted to enter the Crowne Hotel in West Drayton via the rear entrance, damaging the security hoarding which surrounds the building.
The force said officers were already at the hotel and called for more support to stop the men breaking in.
A separate group then made their way towards a nearby Novotel on Cherry Lane, while another group moved towards a Holiday Inn. Three people were arrested and cordons were put in place in the surrounding area.
Two officers suffered minor injuries, the force said.
Members of the public were ordered to disperse by police two more people were arrested as officers tried to clear the scene.
Police said the dispersal order remains in place and will be reviewed as the evening continues.
Commander Adam Slonecki, in charge of policing London this weekend, said: ‘We have prepared with additional resources to police protests at migrant hotels over the last few weeks and this weekend is no exception.
‘We understand strength of feeling on these issues, but where peaceful protest crosses the line into criminality, including injuries to our officers, we will take immediate action.
‘We deployed additional officers to the area and five arrests have been made for offences including assault on a police officer, affray and violent disorder.
‘Around 500 protesters were in the area, but most people have now dispersed from the immediate vicinity. However, further arrests will be made if we need to tackle disorder.
‘Local residents and businesses can expect to see our continued presence and patrols in the area.’
Essex Police has also put a dispersal order in place and an order giving officers the power to force the removal of face coverings ahead of a planned protest in Epping this evening.
The Section 60AA order will run for 24 hours and the dispersal order, which covers the main high street and the area surrounding the Bell Hotel, will be in place until 4am on Sunday, police said.
Ross Ellis, 49, of Orchard Croft, Harlow, has been charged with failing to provide a specimen and Jimmy Hillard, 52, of Chequers Road, Loughton, has been charged with assaulting an emergency worker.
Assistant chief constable Glen Pavelin, of Essex Police, said: ‘We never take the decision to impose restrictions on members of the public lightly.
‘However, we must guard against the impact of anti-social behaviour on our community and these orders will give us extra powers to deal with that should it become necessary to do so.’
ACC Pavelin added: ‘We’ve consistently said we will always seek to facilitate lawful protest, but that does not include a right to commit crime, and we’ll take a firm approach to anyone intent on doing that.
‘The strength of feeling in Epping is not lost on me – or anyone in Essex Police – and I would urge anyone who wants to make their voices heard to please do that peacefully.’
Elsewhere, police said demonstrations in Northamptonshire on Saturday, where around 50 pro-immigration and 100 anti-immigration protesters had gathered outside a hotel, had been peaceful and no arrests had been made.
In Swindon, police said protests near a hotel had also been peaceful.
The number of councils vowing to take legal action to kick asylum seekers out of hotels has grown to at least 19 as mass unrest continues to spread across the UK today.
Furious protesters have gathered outside migrant hotels in towns and cities such as Newcastle, Swindon and Falkirk after the Court of Appeal yesterday overturned an injunction ordering the removal of 138 migrants from an accommodation in Essex.
It comes as the Labour government was last night facing accusations from senior Tories that it is ‘taking the side of migrants over Britons’.
On Saturday, more and more councils promised to fight back against asylum hotels in light of the Court of Appeal’s decision on The Bell Hotel in Epping.
Reform UK has said that all 12 councils it controls should be exploring legal options to stop asylum seekers being housed in local hotels.
The leader of West Northamptonshire council Mark Arnull said Friday’s ruling had made no impact on his plans to try and shut asylum seeker accommodation in the area down.
He told the BBC: ‘It also doesn’t change our view that the use and locations of the three hotels have never been suitable for asylum accommodation and place unreasonable and unsustainable strain on local services.’
The other Reform-controlled councils include Durham, North Northamptonshire, Doncaster, Derbyshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire.
And at least four Labour-run authorities – Wirral Council, Stevenage Borough Council, Tamworth Borough Council and Rushmoor Borough Council – have also vowed to take action.
Meanwhile Kemi Badenoch on Friday urged Conservative-run councils looking to shut down migrant hotels to ‘keep going’.
Both Broxbourne Council in Hertfordshire and Spelthorne Council in Surrey have said there have been ‘no changes’ in their plans to fight back against the Labour government’s policies.
And when Epping Council is also considered, that brings the total number of local authorities vowing to take action against asylum hotels to at least 19.
Photos from today show campaigners outside hotels across the UK holding England flags and placards calling for migrants to go home.
Counter demonstrations are also underway – with the group Stand Up To Racism calling on its supporters to rally against what it called ‘far-right and fascist thugs’.
In Newcastle, cries of ‘send them back’ and ‘stop the boats’ were met with loud choruses of ‘no hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here’ by an equal number of counter protesters.
At one point, the far-right protesters, decked out in Union Jack flags, broke into a spontaneous rendition of ‘Rule Britannia.’
Meanwhile, angry activists who descended on a Falkirk hotel were met by hundreds of counter protesters.
Two separate demonstrations were called by the Save Our Future and Our Kids Futures group in the town on Saturday, amid fears of local people about alleged crimes linked to those housed at the Cladhan Hotel.
The first saw hundreds gather outside the office of Labour MP Euan Stainbank, where speeches were made, and people took aim at the UK Government, the police and journalists who were covering the protest.
More than 200 later assembled outside the nearby Cladhan Hotel, which is believed to house asylum seekers waiting for their claims to be processed.
Meanwhile, yesterday a grinning migrant was caught on camera giving protesters outside an asylum hotel the middle finger just hours the Court of Appeal’s decision.
The young man was seen at the window of the Roundhouse hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset as around 200 demonstrators called for it to be shut down.
Sir Keir Starmer responded to the unrest by promising small boat migrants will be ‘detained and sent back’.
In a social media post, Sir Keir said: ‘I am clear: we will not reward illegal entry. If you cross the Channel unlawfully, you will be detained and sent back.’
The government has previously argued that the need to protect the human rights of asylum seekers by housing them in hotels, outweighed the safety concerns of local families.
However, MPs and the local council reacted furiously to the decision to keep housing asylum seekers in Epping, with Reform leader Nigel Farage saying illegal migrants now had more rights than Britons under Sir Keir Starmer.
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch also accused the prime minister of ‘putting the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British people’.
It comes as former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said the Government was right to take the Epping case to the Court of Appeal but said people wanted action to close asylum hotels.
He rejected suggestions that the UK may have to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights to be able to efficiently remove people with no right to be in the country.
Lord Falconer, who served under former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: ‘We’ve obviously got to move forward in relation to closing the hotels and also stopping the crossings.’
If the Epping injunction had not been overturned on Friday, some 138 asylum seekers would no longer have been able to be housed there beyond September 12.
The case could have had wider ramifications, as more than 200 hotels are being used to house asylum seekers around the country.
Lord Falconer said: ‘The Government always has the burden of doing what’s possible and the Government is doing the right thing in relation to it, but there’s a lot more to do, and if we don’t, as a government, do it, then you’ll see those opinion polls raised yet further for Reform, because they don’t have the burden of having to be practical.
‘But the country wants some action in relation to it.’
Last night anger began building outside The Bell Hotel in Epping at the news of the ruling.
The council said the owners of the three-star hotel had breached planning rules by using it as accommodation for small-boat migrants.
Somani Hotels, which owns the establishment, and the Home Office challenged the injunction.
The three Court of Appeal judges said last week’s decision by High Court judge Mr Justice Eyre was ‘seriously flawed’.
Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, said: ‘We conclude that the judge made a number of errors in principle, which undermine this decision.
‘The judge’s approach ignores the obvious consequence that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere.’
Lord Justice Bean added that such an injunction ‘may incentivise’ other councils to take steps similar to those taken by Epping.
Lawyers for Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had argued that shutting the hotel would set a ‘dangerous precedent’ which would have encouraged similar litigation by other councils.
Mr Farage claimed the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) had been ‘used’ by the Government ‘against the people of Epping’.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the Epping case had ‘seen the Labour Government using the courts against the British public’.
He added: ‘The Government even brazenly said in court that the rights of illegal immigrants were more important than the rights of local people.
‘The numbers in asylum hotels were dropping fast before the election – but have risen since because Labour has lost control of our borders.’
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick called the ruling ‘extremely disappointing’ as he urged councils to still take action to close asylum hotels in their areas.
He said: ‘Yvette Cooper’s decision to put two fingers up to the legitimate anger of the British public will surely inspire even more protests across the country. People are fed up with the Government siding with illegal migrants over the British people.’
Epping council said it was ‘deeply disappointed’ by the ruling, which had led to ‘doubt and confusion’.
Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said while the Government was successful in its appeal, the reality of using hotels to house asylum seekers was ‘untenable’ and called for refugees to be housed in neighbourhoods.
He said: ‘Waiting until 2029 to end their use is no longer an option. As long as hotels remain open, they will continue to be flashpoints for protest.’
Border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said: ‘We inherited a chaotic asylum accommodation system costing billions.
‘This government will close all hotels by the end of this Parliament and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way that avoids the chaos of recent years that saw 400 hotels open at a cost of £9million a day.’
Epping’s legal challenge followed a series of protests outside the hotel amid accusations of sexual assault regarding two men being housed there.
Some protests involved clashes with police, resulting in six men being charged with violent disorder, two of whom have pleaded guilty. Two residents of the Bell Hotel have been charged with sexual assault.
Essex Police were anticipating trouble last night, with as many as four marked vans parked on the hotel’s forecourt from early in the afternoon, and ten officers standing outside. Migrants had reportedly been advised to stay inside.
Within minutes of the judges’ decision, local Conservative councillor Shane Yerrell arrived at the hotel.
He said: ‘This decision is disgusting. I’ve just been on the phone with the father of the girl whose sexual assault case involving one of the migrants has been in court this week.
‘This decision is disgusting for them. Local mums and dads want the hotel closed – as the first judgment said.’
The number of protesters outside the hotel was growing by 5pm, with new arrivals including ‘pink ladies’ great-grandmother-of-five Shirley Mooney, 68, alongside her neighbour and fellow grandmother Carmen MacDonald, 60.
Both were wearing T-shirts with ‘The only way is Epping’ on the front – and ‘Send them home, protect our kids’ on the back.
Ms Mooney worked in the Bell as a manager until 1998, said of the latest judgment: ‘I am absolutely disgusted. It’s horrific, a joke.
‘Whose side are these judges on? They need the sack. As soon as we heard the news, we came down here to show our support. We won’t stop.’
The only person here celebrating the judgment last night was a migrant resident.
Advised by staff not to speak or leave his room, he texted your reporter to say of the judges’ decision: ‘I am pleased. ‘It had been a worry.’