In a summer of anti-migrant rallies, flags and nationalistic rhetoric, observers warn there is a lack of government voices pushing back
The Bell hotel in Epping has seen a lot since it was built in the 16th century as a coaching inn, serving travellers passing through the historic Essex market town and on to London, 15 miles to the south-west. This has long been a place that bustled with outsiders, though they have not always been welcome – the small green common opposite was once named after a beacon that local stories say was built to warn of invasion.
Though now wrapped in ugly 1960s extensions that have stripped it of anything approaching charm, the unassuming building – close to agricultural land and a cricket pitch – is an unlikely place to spark a potential political crisis.
That is what the government may be facing, however, after the high court ruled this week that the Home Office’s use of the Bell hotel to house asylum seekers breached planning laws. Epping Forest district council had challenged the government after the hotel became a flashpoint for anti-refugee protests, after a Syrian man who had been placed there was arrested and charged over the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.
