Protesters outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Epping are “upset for legitimate reasons”, a cabinet minister has said, as police brace for further unrest over the coming days.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade secretary, said there was “huge frustration that is shared by the government” about the asylum system and the pressures it created on housing.
Police have issued a dispersal order at Epping after a series of demonstrations outside Bell hotel, which broke out after an Ethiopian asylum seeker who had recently arrived on a small boat was charged with sexual assault against a local girl.
Hundreds of people, many of them local residents, have been participating in the protests. Far-right activists have become involved in promoting them online and have been present, in some cases clashing with police. Officers are braced for further protests on Thursday evening and over the weekend.
Asked whether he was worried about the unrest spreading, Reynolds told Sky News the government, police and other enforcement agencies were “prepared for all situations”.
“I think what we’ve got to talk about is: why are people unhappy with, say, the asylum system? Are they reasonable? Are they upset for legitimate reasons? Yes, we share those as a government,” he said. “That is why we are sorting it out.
“And I understand the frustrations people have, but ultimately, you solve those frustrations and solve the problem by fixing and getting a grip of the core issue, which is what we’re doing.”
Reynolds said the number of hotels being used to house asylum seekers in the UK had halved from 400 to about 200.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Reynolds said there was “frustration, huge frustration, that is shared by the government. I think what people felt under the last government was that it was completely out of control”.
“There is clearly more to do but that came from an asylum system where there wasn’t a proper grip of it ... We are starting to change that […] the number of deportations is up, there are fewer asylum hotels.”
Reynolds said “the solution is not putting people in different forms of accommodation, it’s about having a system where if people shouldn’t be in the UK, they have to leave the UK”.
He added that voters were unhappy about the way net migration had continued to rise after Brexit and felt “that was not the deal that they voted for”, saying: “You can be pro-talent and people coming to the UK and also say there’s got to be control, there’s got to be limits.”
Tiff Lynch, the chair of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, warned police could be diverted from neighbourhood duties to keep the peace at protests if the unrest spread over the summer.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph, Lynch said the protests in Epping were a “signal flare” for more and that police officers were being “pulled in every direction”. “It is dangerous to assume that they can continue to hold the line indefinitely, without the support they need or the recognition they deserve,” she wrote.
Essex police have issued a dispersal order in Epping that is in force from 2pm on Thursday until 8am on Friday. It gives officers the power to tell anyone suspected of committing or planning antisocial behaviour to leave the area or face arrest.
