Asylum seekers who refuse to move out of hotels to new accommodation will have their support withdrawn, the Home Office has said, before more protests at a site in Essex this weekend.
Angela Eagle, a Home Office minister, said the government was working to “close hotels, restore order, and put fairness and value for money at the heart of our asylum system”.
The government is concerned about the risk of unrest spreading after incidents of disorder at the Bell hotel in Essex during the past week led to nine people being charged with offences.
Some of the protests were orchestrated by far-right figures, with demonstrations spreading to a handful of other places.
The Epping protest was sparked by the charging of Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, a 38-year-old asylum seeker, with sexual assault over allegedly trying to kiss a 14-year-old. He denied the charge at Chelmsford magistrates court and will stand trial next month.
With tensions high, the government said it was clamping down on “abuse” of hotels housing those seeking asylum with its new “failure to travel guidance”.
This will deny single men the right to stay in hotels if they have turned down suitable accommodation elsewhere without a valid reason. It will also lead to the withdrawal of financial support.
However, sources in refugee charities said the policy was not new and those terms were already largely applied to asylum seekers who turned down other accommodation without a reason.
They said previous guidance had been put under review and was now replaced with the new rules, but that little would change, and that most cases where people decline to move involved failures in communication or problems in the system.
A further demonstration at the Bell hotel in Epping is planned for Sunday by those opposed to it being used for asylum seekers, with counter-protesters also expected to gather.
Protesters march from outside the Bell hotel to Epping civic centre on Thursday. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
The Guardian reported on Thursday that James Regan, one of a number of Epping Reform UK councillors attending the protests last week, claimed in an interview outside the hotel that “they’re trying to dilute the Englishness out of us”. Another Reform official shared a stage with Callum Barker, of the far-right party Homeland, and gave a speech in which she said: “[If] I’ve got to wear a far-right title then so be it.”
Both Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who is now launching his own party, and Diane Abbott, who is suspended as a Labour MP, have come out in support of anti-racism protesters holding a demonstration on Sunday.
While Corbyn will not be attending the counter-demonstration, a message of support from him will be read out.
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“Refugees have been through unimaginable distress to seek a place of safety. They are human beings like you and me,” he said. “The great dividers want people to think that migrants and minorities are to blame for the problems in our society. They’re not. The problems are caused by a rigged economic system that enriches billionaires and impoverishes working-class communities.
“We are a movement made up of all backgrounds and faiths – and we speak with one united voice when we say: refugees are welcome here.”
On Thursday, Epping Forest district council unanimously voted to support a motion calling for the immediate closure of the Bell hotel for the purpose of asylum processing and for the “managed closure” of the Phoenix hotel. The vote was nonbinding and purely symbolic.
During the meeting, Chris Whitbread, the leader of the council, reiterated that the local authority had no say on the use of the hotels and the decision was up to the Home Office, who he accused of “not being overly cooperative” when safeguarding concerns were raised.
On Friday, dozens of protesters demonstrated outside a hotel in Canary Wharf that is reportedly to be used to offer temporary accommodation for asylum seekers. The demonstration, organised by Stand Up to Racism, took place outside the Britannia International hotel, with a group of anti-migrant protesters also present.
More than 25 officers were in the vicinity to separate the two sides, with police vans carrying additional staff also patrolling Canary Wharf.
In Nottinghamshire, anti-racism campaigners said there were about 100 protesters who gathered in the centre of Sutton-in-Ashfield late in the afternoon.
Stand Up to Racism, about 20 of whose members attended a hastily arranged counter-protest, have accused the local MP – Reform UK’s Lee Anderson – of stoking tensions with a lengthy social media post in which he made the false claim police were bussing in anti-fascist campaigners to counter far-right protests.