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

Introduction – Aug 29, 2025

By definition, a pyrrhic victory is won at too great a cost to be worthwhile. For example you may successfully defend a city but take such heavy casualties in the process that you ultimately lose the war.

The High Court ruling to allow the government to continue housing asylum seekers at a hotel in Epping is a prime example of a pyrrhic victory.

That’s because although the ruling was on a technical point, it will crystallize attitudes against the ruling Labour Party.

A growing number of Britons now see their political leaders, together with the police and the courts, as working in favour of asylum seekers and against the interests of native born Britons.

This High Court ruling will only reinforce that perception.

It will feed the growing sense of popular discontent on the issue and from hereon in everything the ruling Labour Party does will be viewed in this light. Does it serve the interests of native born Britons, or does it serve the interests of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers at taxpayers expense?

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

Tom Watling, Holly Bancroft – The Independent Aug 29, 2025

The Home Office has won its appeal against a High Court ruling temporarily banning a hotel in Epping from housing asylum seekers.

Three senior judges in the Court of Appeal announced their decision just 10 days after the High Court imposed the temporary injunction on The Bell Hotel in Essex, following unrest.

Lord Justice Bean told the Court of Appeal that the High Court was “erroneously flawed” in grant Epping council an injunction against use of the hotel.

Quashing the injunction, he said: “We grant permission to appeal, both to Somani and to (the Home Office). We allow the appeals and we set aside the injunction imposed on 19 August 2025.”

The Home Office had argued that banning the hotel from housing asylum seekers would set a dangerous precedent for other councils to follow suit, leaving “asylum seekers potentially living destitute in the streets”. Lord Justice concurred with this argument.

Continues …