Migrant hotels LIVE: Police brace for protests across the country as tensions soar

New data released this week reveals the number of migrants currently accommodated in hotels across 122 UK council areas. The figures show that 32,059 migrants were living in taxpayer-funded hotels as of June this year - an 8% increase compared with the previous year.

The dataset includes all councils, from those with no migrants housed to those with the highest numbers, providing a full national overview. Some councils are hosting hundreds of migrants in temporary hotel accommodation, while others report zero, highlighting the uneven distribution of demand for hotel housing.

This transparency gives residents and policymakers a clear picture of how local authorities are managing migrant accommodation and could influence future planning and policy decisions.

Scots councils have been urged to follow Epping Council and seek legal advice in a bid to stop the Home Office housing migrants in hotels. The English local authority left Sir Keir Starmer humiliated after winning a court battle to block the housing of asylum seekers in The Bell Hotel.

The High Court granted a temporary injunction blocking them from being sited there after a number of protests were held outside it after a migrant living there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the town. Mr Justice Eyre ruled after refusing an 11th-hour effort from Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to dismiss the case.

Currently, the UK Government is legally obligated to house asylum-seekers.

Using hotels to do so has been a contentious issue since 2020, when the number of asylum-seekers increased sharply and the then-Conservative government had to find new ways to house them.

Under Labour there have been more than 27,000 unauthorised arrivals so far this year, nearly 50% higher than at the same point last year.

The figure is ahead of the number at this time of year in 2022, when a record 45,755 came ashore.

The number of asylum-seekers housed in hotels stood at just over 32,000 at the end of June, according to Home Office figures released Thursday.

That figure was up 8% from about 29,500 a year earlier but far below the peak of more than 56,000 in September 2023.

A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.

In May, the National Audit Office said those temporarily living in hotels accounted for 35% of all people in asylum accommodation.

St George's and Union flags have been placed over a pedestrian crossing that has St George's crosses drawn on it, near the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf, London, where asylum seekers are planned to be housed.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the people of Epping who protested and its council have "led the way", writing in The Telegraph that "our country's patience has snapped".

His Conservative colleague Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said on Thursday that people have "every right" to protest over asylum hotels in their areas.

Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this parliament in 2029.

Posting on X, the Conservative leader wrote: "Labour say the number of asylum hotels has halved. What they aren’t saying is all of that cut happened before the general election last year.

"If Labour had continued on that trajectory, there would be no asylum hotels today. Instead, progress has stopped.

"The number of asylum hotels has remained constant, the number of small boat arrivals has hit record highs, and they voted against our Deportation Bill that would bring in a proper deterrent and ensure we deported illegal arrivals asap."

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