Asylum hotel protests: ”They’re angry with the wrong people’

Published

2 days ago

September 26, 2025

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“It was, quite literally, you deserve to be raped, you N-word bitch,” Ella Mitchell tells me, standing in her kitchen, “and I can’t wrap my head around it.”

Warning: This article includes content that some readers may find distressing

Ella, 25, an administrative assistant in Leeds, is recounting her recent experience at an asylum hotel protest.

The abuse she says she’s had from protesters, calling for the hotel to shut, is shocking.

“Threats of sexual violence, rape threats, racial slurs,” she says, shaking her head.

“I think I will always find it a little bit galling to hear people say that they’re doing this to keep people on their streets safe.”

For several weeks now, Ella’s helped organise counter-protests outside the Britannia Hotel in Leeds.

The hotel houses 200 male asylum seekers and protests started in early August, organised under the slogan “Protect Our Kids”.

“We live in a time of immense misogyny and violence against women,” Ella says, but “the only incidences of sexual violence against women that they care about are ones that they can use to further their own agenda, to stir up more hatred around asylum seekers.”

I put it to Ella that there are some people at the protests who wouldn’t call themselves racists or far-right, as some of the counter-protesters claim them to be, but are local residents who feel ignored by the government and angry at small boat arrivals.

“I do understand,” Ella says, “that not every single person there is a seasoned far-right organiser, and I wouldn’t want to claim as such.

“However, if you are stood next to someone who is Sieg Heil-ing [the Hitler salute], for example, or next to someone who is yelling racist abuse, week in, week out, then I think it does reflect on you.

‘They’re angry with the wrong people’

Protests and counter-protests outside asylum hotels have been going on all summer, sparked initially by those that began outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.

For weeks, we’ve been speaking to people on both sides and found communities starkly divided.

“We shouldn’t have to do this, should we?” a counter-protester tells me.

It’s Friday night and we’ve come down to see the Leeds protest for ourselves.

The numbers aren’t huge – a few dozen on both sides, flanked by police – but the rhetoric is aggressive and the atmosphere febrile. Insults are lobbed by people on both sides.

“We shouldn’t have that hatred on this side of road,” Sally Kincaid says, “against people who live on this side of the road.”

Sally, a retired teacher and seasoned protester, has worked with refugee communities for decades.

“I can understand people being angry, but they are angry at the wrong people.

“Refugees are not to blame for the fact that there’s bad housing or overcrowded schools.

“And people keep being told that they’re getting all these things – they’re not! They are just waiting and waiting for the Home Office to make a decision.”

Sally then tells us about Hossein, a young refugee from Iran who she fostered from the age of 15.

“He’s lovely,” Sally says, “and everyone that’s ever met him loves him to bits.

“Now, this lot would say he is a bad person.”

I tell Sally that, from our previous conversations with protesters, we know there are a lot of concerns about safety and rates of crime associated with migrants.

“It’s a myth, it’s a myth,” she says, pointing at protesters on the other side, “and it’s being stirred up to make the situation more polarised than it already is.”

‘There’s a lot of racism around and kids are scared’

A few days later, we go to Sally’s house.

We’d hoped to meet her foster son Hossein, who lived with Sally and her partner, Steve Johnston, for five years after he first arrived in the UK in the back of a freezer van.

Sally and Steve saw Hossein through college, driving tests and, after nearly a decade of waiting, getting British citizenship.

But Hossein isn’t there, and when I ask Sally why, she looks really sad.

“There’s a lot of racism around and kids are scared,” she explains. “That’s the tragedy of it.”

She describes her foster son as someone who “was very, very open on camera a few years ago” but says he is “now worried”.

“The amount of hatred on social media is awful towards refugees, even though he now has status.”

I ask Sally if she finds that painful to admit.

“Yes,” she says, “we sat and watched the TV the other night when [Nigel] Farage was talking about deporting Afghan women, and I just thought what’s going on?

“Why have we got ourselves into this situation where people who desperately want to contribute to society are scared to meet people like you.”

‘I don’t think wearing a dog collar exempts you from abuse’

It’s Friday night and, once again, we’re back outside the Britannia hotel.

Protesters and counter-protesters take their positions on either side of the road, and the chanting and name-calling – amplified on loud hailers and speakers – start being flung across the dual carriageway from both sides.

As we walk along the bank of counter-protesters, I see a man, wearing a dog collar and crucifix and quite clearly a member of the clergy, carrying a tray of homemade cakes.

He offers me one and I ask if they are for both sides of the protest.

“Yes we’ve offered them to both sides, and a sense of peace, in the midst of rising tension.”

I ask him what he means by “rising tension”.

“Well, I was last here three weeks ago, and I think the verbal abuse I got today,” he says, gesturing to the protest side, “is more than I had three weeks ago.”

“So to that extent, it does feel like the tension has raised slightly higher,” he adds.

The man, as it turns out, is Arun Arora, the Bishop of Kirkstall, the most senior member of the Church of England in West Yorkshire.

I ask him if he finds it shocking that someone who, in his words, has come in peace, should be the target of verbal abuse at these protests.

“I don’t think wearing a dog collar exempts you from abuse,” the bishop says.

“I think part of it is if you stand alongside those who are being dehumanised, those who are being degraded, those who are regarded the least, then you can expect to share in some of the same treatment that they get.”

‘Being polite about it doesn’t win’

I scan the crowd and see Ella, escorting groups of counter-protesters from a nearby car park to the meeting point.

She tells me no one walks here alone in case things get violent.

I also see Steve, Sally’s partner.

Like Sally, he’s been involved in the protest movement for years and I ask him about the language we hear being used by the counter-protesters, like chants of “Nazi scum” and “fascist scum, off our streets”.

Does he think it risks making a tense situation even more polarised?

“There are people over there,” he says, gesturing to the protesters on the other side, “who are clearly members of fascist organisations.”

He concedes, when I challenge him, that there will be some who won’t be, but says “by doing these sort of chants, we hope those people will go away and think ‘well why are they calling us Nazis?’

“People have [previously] stopped the rise of fascism by calling it out for what it is.

“Ignoring it or being polite about it doesn’t win.”

UK

More than half of Labour members do not want Starmer to lead party into next general election – poll

Published

7 hours ago

September 28, 2025

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More than half of Labour members do not want Starmer to lead party into next general election - poll

More than half of Labour members do not want Sir Keir Starmer to fight the next general election as party leader, a new poll has revealed.

The Survation survey for LabourList, shared with Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, showed 53% of the party membership want a new leader by the time of the next election, while only 31% want Sir Keir to remain in post until then.

The findings lay bare the scale of the challenge facing the prime minister as he heads to Liverpool for the Labour Party conference.

He arrives at the gathering just days after a separate poll showed Reform leader Nigel Farage had a clear path to Number 10, and after Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham appeared to set out his own bid for the Labour leadership in a series of interviews in which he claimed Labour MPs had privately urged him to return to Westminster.

In a direct criticism of Sir Keir, Mr Burnham – who previously ran for the Labour leadership in 2010 and 2015 – said Number 10 had created a “climate of fear” among MPs and created “alienation and demoralisation” within the party.

And in an apparent rebuke of the government’s policies and priorities so far, Mr Burnham set out an alternative vision to “turn the country around”, including higher council tax on expensive homes in London and the South East and for greater public control of energy, water and rail.

It follows a turbulent few weeks in which the prime minister has lost several close appointments: Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister, Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, Paul Ovenden as his director of political strategy and most recently Steph Driver, his director of communications.

The LabourList poll, which surveyed 1,254 Labour members between 23 and 25 September, also showed Labour members were unhappy with the general direction of the government, with 65% saying Sir Keir was heading in the wrong direction, compared with 26% who said he was getting it right.

More than 60% said he had governed badly, compared with 35% who had said he had done a good job.

The results will add to further grim reading for Labour after a mega poll conducted by YouGov for Sky News showed that Mr Farage is on course to be the next prime minister.

The YouGov MRP polling projection, based on a 13,000 sample taken over the last three weeks, suggested an election held tomorrow would see a hung parliament with Reform UK winning 311 of the 650 seats – 15 seats short of the formal winning line of 326.

The projection of Commons seats in Great Britain puts Reform UK on 311 seats, Labour on 144 seats, Liberal Democrats on 78 seats, Conservatives on 45 seats, SNP on 37 seats and Greens on seven seats, with Plaid on six seats and three seats won by left-wing challengers.

Northern Ireland constituencies are excluded.

The result would see Labour lose around two-thirds of their existing seats, down from the 411 they won in last year’s general election.

It would also represent the worst result for the party since 1931 and would mark a further decline on the party’s performance under Jeremy Corbyn in 2019, when the party won 202 seats.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir’s approval rating has hit a historic low. Just 13% of the public approves of the job he is doing as PM, according to a new Ipsos poll, while 79% is dissatisfied – giving him a net approval rating of -66.

That is worse than the previous record the pollster has recorded of -59, held by both Rishi Sunak in April 2024, and Sir John Major in August 1994.

The Labour Party doesn’t fare much better, with just 22% of the public saying they would vote for it if a general election were held today, while 34% would vote for Reform UK.

But Sir Keir has insisted that he can “pull things around”, telling The Sunday Times: “It is the fight of our times and we’ve all got to be in it together. We don’t have time for introspection, we don’t have time for navel-gazing.

“You’ll always get a bit of that at a Labour Party conference, but that is not going to solve the problems that face this country.

“Once you appreciate the change – in the sense of the division that Reform would bring to our country and the shattering of what we are as a patriotic country – then you realise this is a fight which in the end is bigger than the Labour Party.”

Sir Keir has previously warned that the next election will be an “open fight” between Labour and Reform UK.

UK

Jaguar Land Rover rescued with £1.5bn government-backed loan after crippling cyber attack

Published

13 hours ago

September 28, 2025

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Jaguar Land Rover rescued with £1.5bn government-backed loan after crippling cyber attack

The government will underwrite a £1.5bn loan guarantee to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) after a mass cyber attack forced a shutdown.

JLR suspended production at its UK factories following the cyber attack on 31 August. The shutdown is expected to last until 1 October, leaving the largest UK carmaker’s suppliers in limbo.

The loan is expected to give suppliers some certainty amid the continued shutdown, as the £1.5bn will help bolster JLR’s cash reserves as it pays back companies in its supply chain.

The government will give its backing to the loan through the Export Development Guarantee (EDG), a financial support mechanism aimed at helping British companies that sell their goods overseas.

The £1.5bn loan, from a commercial bank, will be paid back over five years.

“Following our decisive action, this loan guarantee will help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs in the West Midlands, Merseyside and throughout the UK,” Business Secretary Peter Kyle said.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves added: “Jaguar Land Rover is an iconic British company which employs tens of thousands of people – a jewel in the crown of our economy.

“Today we are protecting thousands of those jobs with up to £1.5bn in additional private finance, helping them support their supply chain and protect a vital part of the British car industry.”

As a result of the attack, production was halted across the car-making supply chain, with thousands of staff off work.

More than 33,000 people work directly for JLR in the UK, many of them on assembly lines in the West Midlands, the largest of which is in Solihull, and a plant at Halewood on Merseyside.

An estimated 200,000 more are employed by several hundred companies in the supply chain, who have faced business interruption with their largest client out of action.

Ministers have had daily contact with JLR and cyber experts following the attack as the company attempts to restart production at its UK factories.

Unions and politicians have warned that small suppliers producing parts for JLR could collapse as a result of the shutdown unless they receive urgent financial support.

This week, Mr Kyle met workers and bosses at Webasto, which makes sunroofs for JLR.

The brand has the largest supply chain in the UK automotive sector, which employs around 120,000 people and is largely made up of small and medium-sized businesses.

The government’s promise of underwriting the JLR loan has been praised by the Unite union, whose general secretary Sharon Graham said the loan was “an important first step and demonstrates that the government has listened to the concerns raised in meetings with Unite over recent days”.

She added: “This is exactly what the government should be doing, taking action to protect jobs.

“The money provided must now be used to ensure job guarantees and to also protect skills and pay in JLR and its supply chain.”

UK

Labour MPs gather in Liverpool as Starmer mounts fightback against Reform

Published

13 hours ago

September 28, 2025

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Labour MPs gather in Liverpool as Starmer mounts fightback against Reform

Labour MPs are gathering in Liverpool for the annual party conference as Sir Keir Starmer attempts to mount a fightback against dire polling and threats to his leadership.

The prime minister said he will use the four-day event to show Labour can be an alternative to the “toxic divide and decline” offered by Reform UK, describing this as “the fight of our times”.

Sir Keir is under pressure after two separate polls predicted Nigel Farage’s party will win the next general election as voters turn their backs on mainstream politics.

It is the latest bit of bad news for the embattled prime minister, who has faced a month of scandals surrounding his top team alongside speculation Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham could mount a leadership challenge.

Speaking from the conference venue on Saturday night, Sir Keir said the next few days are a “really big opportunity to make our case to the country, make it absolutely clear that patriotic national renewal is the way forward, not the toxic divide and decline that we get with Reform”.

He later insisted he could “pull things around”, telling The Sunday Times: “It is the fight of our times and we’ve all got to be in it together. We don’t have time for introspection, we don’t have time for navel-gazing.

“You’ll always get a bit of that at a Labour Party conference, but that is not going to solve the problems that face this country.

Much of the next four days is likely to be dominated by discussions on how exactly Labour could beat Reform – and whether Sir Keir is the man for the job.

PM’s future in doubt

There has been rampant speculation Mr Burnham could mount a leadership challenge after he made a series of high-profile interventions this week, criticising the direction of the government and claiming Labour MPs had asked him to stand.

The so-called “King of the North” has many hurdles to overcome before that could be a possibility – he would have to win a seat in Westminster through a by-election if one became available, then get 80 colleagues to back him.

One MP told Sky News that lots of backbenchers are “reluctantly coming to the conclusion” that Sir Keir’s downfall is a “not a matter of if, but when” – citing Mr Burnham or Health Secretary Wes Streeting as possible replacements

However they stressed that they did not want to see the prime minister go and hope he can turn things around ahead of the local elections in May.

Two-child benefit cap speculation

Many MPs want the prime minister to use the conference to set out a positive vision that offers hope for the future – saying his rhetoric on “tough choices” during the first 12 months backfired with the public.

The boss of Unite, Labour’s biggest union funder, has threatened to break its link with the party unless it changes direction.

In a signal the leadership is listening, there have been hints from senior ministers that the government could use the conference to scrap the controversial two-child benefit cap.

The limit is opposed by over 100 Labour MPs, both of Labour’s deputy leadership candidates and other senior party figures such as Mr Burnham and former prime minister Gordon Brown.

Two MPs who were suspended for rebelling over the measure last year – John McDonnell and Aspana Begum – had the whip reinstated on Friday.

Mr McDonnell, the shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, said he hopes “this is a signal the government has decided to scrap the cap”.

Key announcements

Sir Keir’s allies rallied round him ahead of the conference, with Business Secretary Peter Kyle claiming the prime minister received a “rapturous reception” at events he has been speaking at on Saturday.

Sir Keir will address the conference on Tuesday but there will be speeches from cabinet ministers throughout the event, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves to speak on Monday.

The opening day will kick off with a pledge from Housing Secretary Steve Reed to construct three new towns before the next election, in Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Leeds South Bank, and Crews Hill, north London.

In one of a number of announcements overnight, the government also said that it will underwrite a £1.5bn loan guarantee to Jaguar Land Rover as it continues to face a shutdown following a mass cyber attack.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told The Times she is pushing for a new youth mobility scheme and an improved trading relationship with the European Union in a bid to reduce the need for tax rises in the forthcoming budget.

And Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signalled a major change in immigration policy, telling The Sun on Sunday she would “reset” immigration laws so foreigners must prove their social worth before being allowed to settle in Britain.