Inside the new battle to close Lancashire hotels to asylum seekers

PLUS: What the Lancashire response to Operation Raise the Colours tells us

Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.

Asylum seeker hotels and flags have dominated the national news agenda this week.

Hotels in Blackpool and Leyland are being used to house asylum seekers but there is broad agreement that the Conservative-introduced policy needs axing sooner rather than later.

It is the reasons for not liking the policy that change across the political spectrum, with some against all forms of migration given the UK’s issues, and some believing that hotels are an inappropriate way to fulfil our obligations.

South Ribble Borough Council are likely to mount their own legal challenge to the use of the Leyland Hotel to house asylum seekers - but there are differences between events in South Ribble and Epping Forest that could mean a different outcome.

Meanwhile, Operation Raise the Colours is a campaign organised by well-known members of the far right, but the actual goal of placing Union Jacks and St George’s flags onto lamppost isn’t unreasonable. It can and should be a very positive thing to display the flag of where we are from.

But councils - even Reform ones - will take action when it’s not done in a safe or legal way (see: the painting of mini-roundabouts).

Legal action likely to be pursued to close Leyland Hotel to asylum seekers

Leyland Hotel

By Luke Beardsworth & Paul Faulkner

South Ribble Borough Council will consider taking legal action to prevent the housing of asylum seekers in hotels in the borough.

The Leyland Hotel, on Leyland Way, was closed to the public over three years ago to house asylum seekers.

Labour MP Paul Foster has repeatedly called for an exact date by which the hotel will stop housing asylum seekers, calling for a longer-term and more appropriate solution to accommodation needs.

In November 2023, over 400 hotels were being used for this purpose in the UK. By early 2025, this had decreased to around 220.

But a High Court injunction granted on Tuesday (19 August) means that asylum seekers will be removed from The Bell Hotel in Essex. It follows protests near to the hotel both in support of migrant rights and against its use for asylum seekers.

There has been broad agreement that hotels are not appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers.

Now Labour-controlled South Ribble Borough Council has said it will explore all options within the Essex ruling to see if it can mount a similar challenge to the hotel being used for something the authority says it never had a choice in.

Cllr Matthew Tomlinson, Leader of South Ribble Borough Council said: “The use of hotels for the housing of asylum seekers in the borough was not a choice by South Ribble Borough Council and is something which was imposed on us by government.

“We are aware of this recent ruling, and we will now carefully examine the detail and circumstances surrounding the High Court injunction and explore all of our options.”

South Ribble MP Paul Foster said it was important to remember that – unlike at The Bell Hotel in Essex – there had been “not one reported incident to the police” in relation to The Best Western in Leyland in the three years that it had been operating as asylum accommodation.

He also hit out at what he described as “an orchestrated effort by certain political parties during the summer to create unrest around this issue”.

“But that doesn’t mean we don’t need to see the use of these hotels cease as quickly as possible – that’s always been the desire of me, the local council and the government,” the Labour politician added.

“However, the facts of the matter are that we’ve got to get through the backlog [of asylum claims]. The mess that we inherited has taken longer to work through than we anticipated, but we are making progress – and we will get there.”

Foster also stressed that the South Ribble facility was not being used to house lone males.

“The Leyland hotel has got young families, young children and single mums – and if [they] have a right to stay here, they’ll be allowed to stay here; if they haven’t the right to stay here, then they clearly won’t.

“But we’ve got to allow due process to take place…these are human beings.”

It is not clear if any legal challenge would include the use of the Tickled Trout, which is being used to house people under the Afghan Resettlement Scheme rather than those waiting for an asylum decision.

Meanwhile the Reform UK leader of Lancashire County Council Stephen Atkinson says the authority is “awaiting further information” about a legal ruling on asylum hotels before taking any local action in response to it.

Reform’s national leader, Nigel Farage, quickly pledged that all the local authorities under his party’s control would “do everything in their power” to follow the lead of Tory-run Epping Forest District Council, which brought the Essex case to court.

However, the extent of that power is limited for county authorities in two-tier areas like Lancashire, where housing and planning are responsibilities that sit largely with borough and city councils such as Preston, South Ribble and Burnley – otherwise known as the districts.

That fact was acknowledged by County Cllr Atkinson himself shortly after being elected to head the new ruling group at Lancashire County Council in May.

In response to a request for comment on both the Epping injunction and the county council’s own review, County Cllr Atkinson said: “We will be considering carefully the decision at Epping Forrest and are awaiting further information about the ruling.

“We have recently written to the 12 district councils in Lancashire, asking if they would take on ‘Article 4 directions’ in relation to Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs).

“This would mean that there would be an accurate record in the county of where these HMOs are sited, which is important to us at the county council in terms of providing services.

“We understand how important this subject is to our residents and it is important we have accurate information to enable us to serve people in the best way possible.”

Separately, County Cllr Atkinson suggested to the BBC that something akin to the Nightingale hospitals seen at the height of the pandemic could be quickly developed as alternative asylum housing.

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Flag debate ‘a distraction’ in lieu of delivering on County Hall election promises

A painted roundabout in Kirkham

By Jamie Lopez

A row over hanging flags has been branded a “distraction” after Lancashire County Council’s Reform UK leadership again raised the issue.

Cllr Stephen Atkinson, leader of Lancashire County Council, weighed in on the issue after a Midlands council made headlines for issuing a safety warning over people installing flags on lampposts which were due to undergo maintenance.

It was then reported that Birmingham City Council had removed St George’s flags - something it has denied - and the issue became a talking point among right wing commentators and in Facebook groups amid claims of a ban.

Earlier this week, Cllr Atkinson issued a statement saying the council supports “the patriotic hanging of the Union and St George's Cross flags in a safe way”.