Asylum seekers in Hull still wary of going out two months after hotel targeted during UK riots
In a church hall in Hull, groups of asylum seekers queue for tea and toast and advice from immigration experts.
The room is busy, the busiest it’s been since the riots.
The volunteers who run the weekly event say many people were initially too scared to come out following the violence.
As in other towns and cities, a hotel housing migrants became a target for the rioters.
Wahag, 24, describes watching the attack from a window on the third floor of the hotel.
Riot police stood guard outside the hotel
Wahag watched from a window as people gathered outside
Speaking in Arabic via a translator, he recalls: “I felt scared. I saw the people throwing stones and rocks at the hotel.”
He says he and the other migrants were advised not to go out.
Concerned there could be further riots, he says: “I’m worried that if it does happen again, it would be very bad.”
Wahag says he arrived in the UK by small boat just a few months ago after making the journey across Europe from Yemen.
The riots have left him with mixed views on Britain, where he thought he would be safe.
“There are some bad people and some good people,” he reflects, but he says the UK has a “good government”.
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Bodycam: Police attacked in Hull riots
Shops were attacked and looted in Hull city centre
Wahag reveals that the Home Office has now granted him leave to remain in Britain.
The decision came much more quickly than he expected. His is one of many asylum claims processed since Labour won the election, as it begins to tackle a backlog of applications.
He says he is “happy” Labour is now in power.
“The previous government, they wanted to deport us but now they are making the procedure easier for us,” he says.
It means he will have to move out of the hotel, but is now free to make a life in Britain.
Many of the migrants we spoke to remain more wary about going out.
William, from Kenya, believes asylum seekers were targeted because people think “we came here to seek money or their jobs”.
But he says it’s unfair migrants are blamed for the accommodation and support they are given.
William hid in a community centre as cars and tyres were set alight nearby
“It’s the Home Office and the government,” says William.
“If we were given the right to work we cannot be living in hotels, living for free.”
‘It’s not our fault they put me in that hotel’
Mustafa, who came to the UK on the back of a lorry nine years ago, was also in the hotel as rioters attacked it.
“We hear they are shouting ‘we need to burn the hotel, we need to burn the people in the hotel’,” he recalls, praising the police for keeping him and others safe.
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Earlier this year Mustafa, from Iraq, was destitute.
His asylum claim had been rejected and he was sleeping on a park bench.
But he has since put in a fresh claim, which meant the Home Office gave him a room in the hotel while he awaits a decision.
Asked if he understands why some people find it frustrating he gets a hotel room, an option not available to people born in Britain who find themselves destitute, he says “of course, of course”.
But he says: “You know the procedure of the Home Office. It’s not our fault they put me in that hotel.”
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Inside the simmering anger after UK riots
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A Home Office spokesperson said it is “determined to restore order to the asylum system after it has been put under unprecedented pressure, so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly”.
They added: “We have taken necessary action to restart asylum processing and clear the backlog of cases which will save an estimated £7bn for the taxpayer over the next 10 years.”
Kemi Badenoch has denied the Conservatives would consider means testing the pensions triple lock, as she accused her opponents of trying to “scare people”.
The Tory leader sought to clarify remarks she made on LBC on Thursday evening, which were interpreted as her leaving the door open to means testing the system that guarantees the state pension rises in line with average earnings, inflation or 2.5% – whichever is highest.
The Conservatives have long championed the triple lock – introduced by former chancellor George Osborne during the coalition government – but some senior Conservatives have recently hinted that it might not be sustainable in the long term.
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Ms Badenoch told LBC her party would look at “means testing” – something she said “we don’t do properly here” – in response to a question about the triple lock.
Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK were quick to seize on Ms Badenoch’s comments, claiming the Tory leader would “cut your state pension”.
However, the Tory leader posted on X that she was referring to means testing generally rather than with specific regards to the triple lock.
‘Bungling Badenoch’: Tory pension proposal triggers political pile-on
From criticising “excessive” maternity pay to describing herself as becoming “working class” while working at McDonald’s – not to mention slamming sandwiches as “not real food” (compared to a desktop steak), Kemi Badenoch is never one to shy away from controversy.
Supporters argue this straight-talking directness is a key part of her appeal. But it also gets her into trouble.
On an LBC phone-in last night she was asked what she wanted to do for younger voters fed up with the triple lock on state pensions (which means they go up every year by 2.5%, inflation, or average earnings – whichever is higher).
Her response was to suggest “we’re going to look at means testing” as “we don’t have a system that knows who should get what”.
The idea that the Tories might not be religiously committed to a universal triple lock has led to a political pile-on.
It’s unclear what exactly means testing the triple lock would work in practice; it’s clearly not a developed policy yet (indeed, Ms Badenoch argues the party shouldn’t be focused on specific policies so soon after their drubbing at the last election).
Politicians on all sides have criticised the triple lock before, with the shadow chancellor Mel Stride previously describing it as “unsustainable” and the new pensions minister Torsten Bell as “messy” in his previous role at the Resolution Foundation thinktank.
But Labour are adamant that they would never abandon the triple lock.
Somehow, the Conservative attack on the government’s treatment of pensioners over the winter fuel allowance has become a big question mark over the Tories’ commitment to a promise which has become totemic with many of their core voters.
“Labour punished poor pensioners, snatching away winter fuel payments due to poor means testing,” she said.
“We need better mechanisms, not proxies like pension credit or free school meals. So why are Labour, Reform, and Lib Dems pretending we’re cancelling the triple lock? They’re scared.”
She continued: “In the clip attached, I say ‘no’ to looking at the triple lock.
“But we do need to deliver better means testing. Big tech and supermarkets know more than the government about its citizens. It’s time to change the system for the better. Let’s do this for the next generation.”
On Friday morning, Nigel Huddleston, the Tory party’s co-chair, defended Ms Badenoch and said means testing was very different to scrapping it all together.
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Speaking to Matt Barbet on Sky News Breakfast, Mr Huddleston said: “What Kemi said yesterday in answer to the triple lock… the first word out of her mouth was ‘no’.
“What she talked about yesterday in an interview was about means testing, and this is something she has commented on before, in the context of, for example, winter fuel.
“And she said, look, millionaires probably shouldn’t get it. Millionaires, not millions of pensioners – millionaires.
“We probably do need to look at means testing at some of those levels, and I don’t think many viewers would disagree with that.”
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