Kemi Badenoch calls for Conservative councils to launch legal challenges over asylum hotels – UK politics live

<p>Conservative party leader writes letter ‘encouraging’ councils to ‘take the same steps’ as Epping ‘if your legal advice supports it’</p><p><strong>Charles Falconer</strong>, a Labour peer who served as justice secretary under <strong>Tony Blair</strong> and was previously <strong>Keir Starmer</strong>’s shadow attorney general, urged ministers to appeal against the court decision to close the asylum hotel in <strong>Epping</strong>.</p><p>He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme the judgment “causes great problems” because it “gives rise to the expectation that some asylum hotels can be closed” but without indicating which ones. He said:</p><p>I very strongly urge the government – I don’t know what they’re going to do – to appeal and get some certainty, first of all on which should be closed … and which shouldn’t. Secondly, to deal with the question of a reasonable timescale in relation to this, and thirdly, to deal with this very troublesome issue: namely do demonstrations outside these hostels lead it to it being more likely that they will be closed?</p><p>Yes it was. We wanted to get it down. And we did get it down. In the last nine months we halved the number of asylum hotels and had that trend continued by now there would be no asylum hotels.</p><p>That’s a big question. And one that I think we need to work very closely with local authorities and local communities to tackle.</p><p>We’ve seen there have been some improvements in our school system in the last decade, there have been over 30 years improvements in our school system. But this challenge has persisted, which is why we are very focused on tackling child poverty in the early years.</p><p>We’re extending free school meals to [an] additional half a million children. We’re investing in free breakfast clubs to make sure that children get that really good start to the day, both from a socialised perspective, but also food. So, we are tackling what we see are the barriers that are holding young people back, and also making sure that they want to be in school as well.</p><p>I think whatever the outcome for these young people, they have worked incredibly hard, as have the schools, as have the teachers. So, it really is a day to recognise that and to celebrate, and also to mark how important it is that this is a springboard into whatever comes next.</p><p>So, for young people who are awaiting their results, whatever the outcome, there’ll be support available, whether it’s to go on to an apprenticeship, to A-levels, to T-levels, to vocational qualifications.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/aug/21/kemi-badenoch-conservative-councils-legal-challenge-asylum-hotel-uk-politics-latest-updates-news">Continue reading...</a>

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