Labour could plan to move migrants into flats and HMOs in a town near you

The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has voiced his concerns that Labour could have alternative plans after losing the High Court legal battle over the Bell Hotel in Epping.

Epping Forest Council won their High Court injunction meaning the Home Office has re-home the asylum seekers by 12 September 2025.

Philp has warned that the government could now move the migrants into residential areas and could be scattered into flats and House of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs).

This would be far harder for the police to combat with demonstrations as currently the asylum seekers are currently housed on mass in various hotels.

Speaking to GB News the Shadow Home Secretary said, “I think it’s a good decision by the court, for a change, and I expect other councils will now follow suit and legally challenge the use of hotels for illegal immigrants in their areas as well.

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I have been picking up that the Labour Government’s plan to try and reduce hotel use is simply to move people out of hotels and into flats and HMOs (Houses of Multiple Occupancy) which, of course, would ordinarily be used by young people who are long-term UK residents.

So I’m going to be monitoring this very carefully, monitoring the data to see if that is the trick the Labour Government has up its sleeve.

But look, the real solution to this problem is to stop illegal immigrants coming here in the first place. It’s to deport them immediately upon arrival either back to their country of origin or some other safe third country.

“If we can’t remove them to their country of origin, they shouldn’t be in hotels or flats in the first place. They shouldn’t be here at all in the first place.

“We’re under new leadership, with a new approach. I don’t think that hotel should be there at all. I think all people crossing the Channel illegally and by the way, it’s mostly young men from France should be immediately removed.

He added, “Now, we did have a plan to do that: the Rwanda scheme, which Labour very stupidly cancelled just a few days before it was due to start, with no replacement in place.

“That is why this year, 2025, has been the worst in history for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel, and I understand why people are angry about that.

That’s why we need a new approach, which is that every single person crossing the Channel illegally should be immediately deported.

I was in the migrant camps in France myself just last week. Those people are in France, France is a safe country. No one is being persecuted in France.

“While I was there, as you probably saw, one of the illegal immigrants pulled out a machete. I got pelted with bottles and a car was hit by missiles. Some of those people who did that last week could by now be in the UK.

They could by now be in a hotel just around the corner from where any of your viewers live. They might be committing crimes in this country now.”