Home Office wins court appeal to keep asylum seekers at protest-hit Epping hotel – live.

The Court of Appeal ruled that the temporary injunction obtained by the High Court comprised a ‘series of flaws’ The Home Office has won its appeal against a High Court decision that temporarily barred a hotel in Epping from sheltering asylum seekers.

Three senior judges from the Court of Appeal delivered their verdict just ten days after the High Court put a temporary injunction on the Bell Hotel in Essex due to unrest.

Lord Justice Bean informed the Court of Appeal that the High Court was “erroneously flawed” in granting Epping Council an injunction against the hotel’s usage.

Quashing the order, he stated, “We grant permission to appeal to both Somani and the Home Office.” We grant the appeals and strike aside the injunction ordered on August 19, 2025.”

The Home Office had argued that prohibiting the hotel from lodging asylum seekers would establish a dangerous precedent for other councils to follow, potentially leaving “asylum seekers potentially living destitute in the streets”. Lord Justice agreed with this argument.

The decision is likely to face criticism from both Nigel Farage’s Reform party and the Conservatives, who have been vocally opposed to Labour’s plan to gradually phase out the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.

Recap: Somani hotel representatives say they’ve been “caught in the middle of a much bigger debate on the treatment of asylum seekers.”