Whilst the right continues to fume around hotels housing asylum seekers, the UK has experienced four consecutive days of no small boat arrivals.
This week has been dominated by discussions of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, with a particular focus on Epping, where the council have won a High Court bid to block asylum seekers being housed at the Bell Hotel.
But whilst Reform and the Tories have seemingly been trying to one-up each other on the anti-asylum seeker rhetoric, it’s interesting to note what hasn’t happened this week.
Official Home Office figures show that Tuesday (19 August) was the fourth consecutive day of no one arriving in the UK via small boats.
The last arrivals were 116 people crossing the Channel in two small boats on Friday, 15 August.
Although 2025 has seen record numbers of people crossing the Channel in small boats, the news of a break in the crossings will be welcome news for Keir Starmer and his government.
Since Labour came to power, more than 50,000 asylum seekers have crossed the Channel.
On Tuesday, Epping Council were granted an interim injunction for all asylum seekers to leave The Bell Hotel by 12 September. The council successfully argued the company who own the hotel had breached planning rules, by not using the site for its intended purpose as a hotel.
Following the High Court ruling, some 13 councils – including all 12 controlled by Reform UK – are set to try and follow suit with similar legal challenges. However, this is likely to cause problems for the Home Office who will have to find alternative accommodation for the asylum seekers.
Some 32,000 asylum seekers live in 210 hotels across the UK, down from the peak of more than 400 hotels in the summer of 2023. Lawyers for the Home Office have warned rulings like in Epping will “substantially impact” the government’s ability to house asylum seekers living in hotels.
They have also said that the interim injunction from the High Court “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests round other asylum accommodation.”
Labour has already pledged to stop using hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this parliament.