A weekend of protests and counter-protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers began last night, with dozens expected today. It comes as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has vowed “mass deportations” of illegal immigrants if his party wins the next general election.

Saturday is set to see more demonstrations across major towns and cities in England, organised under the Abolish Asylum System slogan, with at least 33 planned over the bank holiday weekend.

The protests are expected in Bristol, Exeter, Tamworth, Cannock, Nuneaton, Liverpool, Wakefield, Newcastle, Horley, Canary Wharf, Aberdeen and Perth in Scotland, and Mold in Wales.

Counter-protests – organised by Stand Up To Racism – are also set to be held in Bristol, Cannock, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Wakefield, Horley and Long Eaton in Derbyshire.

It comes after Friday night saw the first demonstrations of the weekend, including one outside the TLK hotel in Orpington, south London.

Dozens of protesters could be heard shouting “get them out” and “save our children” next to the site, while counter protesters marched to the hotel carrying banners and placards which read: “Refugees welcome, stop the far right.”

The Metropolitan Police said a large cordon was formed between the two groups and the hotel, and later confirmed that no arrests were made.

Abolish Asylum System protests were also held in Altrincham, Bournemouth, Cheshunt, Chichester, Dudley, Leeds, Canary Wharf, Portsmouth, Rhoose, Rugby, Southampton and Wolverhampton.

Tensions around the use of the hotels for asylum seekers are at a high after statistics showed there were more than 32,000 asylum seekers currently staying in hotels, marking a rise of 8% during Labour’s first year in office.

Regular protests had been held outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, which started after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl on 10 July.

In the wake of those protests, Epping Forest District Council sought and won an interim High Court injunction to stop migrants from being accommodated there – a decision which the government is seeking permission to appeal.

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Farage vows ‘mass deportations’ if elected

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has told The Times there would be “mass deportations” of illegal immigrants if Reform UK wins the next general election, vowing to remove the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights and other international agreements to facilitate five deportation flights a day.

When asked by the newspaper whether that would include Afghan nationals at risk of torture or death, he said: “I’m really sorry, but we can’t be responsible for everything that happens in the whole of the world.

“Who is our priority? Is it the safety and security of this country and its people? Or are we worrying about everybody else and foreign courts?”

Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum Angela Eagle said in response that the Reform UK leader is “simply plucking numbers out of the air, another pie in the sky policy from a party that will say anything for a headline”.

She added: “This Labour government has substantially increased returns with 35,000 people removed from the country in the last year alone, a huge increase on the last government.

“We are getting a grip of the broken asylum system. Making sure those with no right to be here are removed or deported.”

Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this parliament in 2029.

Conservative MP and shadow home secretary Chris Philp also accused Reform UK of recycling Tory ideas on immigration.

“Nigel Farage previously claimed mass deportations were impossible, and now he says it’s his policy,” he added. “Who knows what he’ll say next.”

Home Office stops Norfolk hotel

It comes after South Norfolk Council said it had been told that the Home Office intends to stop housing asylum seekers at the Park Hotel in the town of Diss – which has also seen demonstrations over the last month.

Protests broke out there after officials said they would send single men to the hotel rather than women and children. The hotel’s operator had warned it would close if the change was implemented.

A Home Office spokesperson said on Friday that “we are not planning to use this site beyond the end of the current contract”.

In response, Conservative council leader Daniel Elmer said: “The Home Office thought it could just impose this change and that we would accept it.

“But there is a right way of doing things and a wrong way, and the decision by the Home Office was just plain wrong.”

He added that while “I welcome the decision, in reality it does mean that the women and children who we fought so hard to protect will now be moved elsewhere, and that is a shame”.

Has the government just walked into a giant political elephant trap by attempting to reverse the Epping hotel ruling?

Already on the back foot after a judge ordered the Bell Hotel to be emptied of asylum seekers, the Home Office is now being attacked for trying to appeal that decision.

“The government isn’t listening to the public or to the courts,” said Tory shadow home secretary Chris Philp.

The politics is certainly difficult.

Government sources are alive to that fact, even accusing the Tory-led Epping Council of “playing politics” by launching the legal challenge in the first place.

The fact Labour councils are now also considering claims undermines that somewhat.

After all, the party did promise to shut every asylum hotel by the next election.

Figures out this week showed an increase in the number of migrants in hotels since the Tories left office.

And now, an attempt to keep people in a hotel that’s become a flashpoint for anger.

That’s why ministers are trying to emphasise that closing the Bell Hotel is a matter of when, not if.

“We’ve made a commitment that we will close all of the asylum hotels by the end of this parliament, but we need to do that in a managed and ordered way”, said the security minister Dan Jarvis.

The immediate problem for the Home Office is the same one that caused hotels to be used in the first place.

There are vanishingly few accommodation options.

Labour has moved away from using old military sites.

That’s despite one RAF base in Essex – which Sir Keir Starmer had promised to close – seeing an increase in the number of migrants being housed.

Back in June, the immigration minister told MPs that medium-sized sites like disused tower blocks, old teacher training colleges or redundant student accommodation could all be used.

Until 2023, regular residential accommodation was relied on.

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But getting hold of more flats and houses could be practically and politically difficult, given shortages of homes and long council waiting lists.

All of this is why previous legal challenges made by councils have ultimately failed.

The government has a legal duty to house asylum seekers at risk of destitution, so judges have tended to decide that blocking off the hotel option runs the risk of causing ministers to act unlawfully.

So to return to the previous question.

Yes, the government may well have walked into a political trap here.

But it probably had no choice.

Over a million people are descending on west London this week for an event like no other.

Colourful, celebratory and culturally significant, but it has become increasingly contentious.

For the family of Cher Maximen it’s an event they can no longer be excited about.

In their eyes, carnival has been tainted by the memories of last year when 32-year-old Cher was killed in front of her young daughter in an unexpected, unprovoked attack in the middle of carnival’s ‘family day’.

Cher’s family say she would not want the event to stop, but that its “current format” is unsafe.

“Where some people say, wrong place, wrong time. She was in the right place, at the right time, where she should have been, and still she wasn’t safe,” says Lawrence Hoo, Cher’s cousin.

Mr Hoo says the event is not set up to protect carnival-goers: “She was in the safest location possible on family day with her daughter and she was murdered directly in front of police officers, so if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere, in all honesty, it’s an unmanageable event.”

Last year, the number of carnival-related crimes were down on the year before, and the majority were related to drug offences.

Cher was one of two people murdered at last year’s event.

Mr Hoo says the threat of violence hasn’t gone away: “Really, one murder is a murder too many. I believe that has become too dangerous.

“Could it happen again? Of course it could happen again. Of course, it could happen again. You could turn up the day before, you could be there, you can step out of the front door, you’re in the site. I think it’s an unmanageable location.”

Cher’s grandmother, Vyleen Maximen, wants the international three-day event to be moved.

“When I had the meeting with them, I said ‘why can’t you move it to a different place? ie Hyde Park – that’s a big enough park’. I was told ‘well, it wouldn’t be called Notting Hill Carnival’.”

For the family it comes down to concerns around who attends the street parade. The perceived lack of screening for individuals with weapons worries them.

“This is why I would like it moved,” Ms Maximen said.

“I mean, it’s not up to me. This is just my personal opinion. Have it structured, this is the way in, then the way out, but on the streets you can do whatever and just escape through the streets.”

This weekend, carnival organisers say 7,000 officers and staff will be on site each day with live facial recognition cameras and screening arches used at the busiest entry points.

The option of moving the event however is not up for discussion, says Matthew Phillip, Notting Hill Carnival’s chief executive.

“Carnival should remain on the streets of Notting Hill. It’s where it started, it’s a community event. Unfortunately, it has been marred by incidents.

“Our hearts are very much with the family, but carnival should remain on in the streets of Notting Hill. What we need to do is actually tackle the root causes of the issues of violence that we have in the capital that happen 365 days of the year.”

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In the run-up to the event, the Metropolitan Police have arrested more than 100 people who had planned to attend and seized dozens of knives and firearms.

Commander Charmain Brenyah from the force explains that while the event “creates unique challenges” due to its size and scale, the security operation has been months in the planning.

“All of that work doesn’t just start at carnival. It started in the weeks and months previous to that, where we’ve been taking people off the streets to make sure they don’t come to carnival to cause harm.

“We’ve made 100 arrests of people for various offences. We’ve recalled 21 people to prison. We’ve taken 11 firearms off the street and 40 knives. This is all about making sure that people come to the event and have a safe and secure carnival.”

Mr Phillip, the carnival’s chief executive, is adamant, the event is safe.

“We’ve put a lot of measures in place, as we always do, but even more so this year, to keep people safe,” says Mr Phillip.

“Carnival is a safe space, it’s no more unsafe than the rest of London. So I would say come and, you know, be respectful. We want everybody to come and be respectful and care for each other. But carnival it’s a safe space.”

Cher’s family say she would not want the event stopped, the young mother adored music and dancing, especially at carnival.

But moving it, her cousin Mr Hoo says, could keep everyone safe.

“They can’t put enough precautions in place to make it safe. That’s the reality. It’s absolutely unmanageable in its current format.”