Yesterday’s injunction granted to Epping Forest council giving the government three weeks to stop using the Bell Hotel for asylum seekers on planning grounds is not quite the slam-dunk that it looks. It is theoretically open to appeal: furthermore, it is only an interim measure pending a full trial later this year. But the affair has seriously spooked the government, and rightly so.

Labour’s present immigration policy is now untenable

What worries the Home Office is that it’s not only Epping. It seems a safe bet that the contagion will spread fast. As soon as the result was announced, Broxbourne, a nearby Tory council with a similar make-up to Epping, announced that it is contemplating following suit. Nigel Farage has now pledged that the dozen or so authorities under Reform control will all be taking legal advice. And given that we have had similar serious asylum protests in numerous other places up and down the kingdom, from Norfolk to Greater Manchester to Scotland, these authorities may well be joined by more.

True, not all such claims will bear fruit. As a matter of boring technical law, the grant of an injunction is a remedy in the discretion of the court. Epping was a strong case. The hotel’s owners........

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