Chris Philip defends Badenoch’s call to challenge asylum hotels | News

Shadow Interior Minister Chris Philp defended the call of Kemi Badenoch’s conservative councils to take into account the legal difficulties against the use of hotels hosting asylum seekers.

In a letter to the Tora Councils, Ms. Badenoch said that if your legal advice supports it ”EPPING Council,“ encouraging it ”to take the same steps”.

Speaking with BBC breakfast on Thursday morning, August 21, Philp said that the councils did not have to take such a action when the conservatives came to power because the party “lower the hotel numbers”.

The new home office data shows that the number of asylum seekers in hotels fell from 32,345 to 32.059 in March 2025 in March this year. At the end of September 2023, 56,042 asylum seekers were in hotels.