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Kemi Badenoch will this week chair a crunch summit with council chiefs plotting legal action against migrant hotels. A top barrister will join the Conservative leader and Cllr Holly Whitbread, who was at the forefront of a campaign to force migrants out of the Bell Hotel in Epping, as they host Tory councillors hoping to close asylum accommodation.

Mrs Badenoch declared she wants to give town halls "the tools they need to take on this incompetent Labour Government". On Tuesday, the High Court granted a temporary injunction ordering that asylum seekers be removed from the Bell Hotel after the local authority claimed it did not have planning permission. And 32,059 migrants are still living in hotels across the country - up 8% on last year.

Mrs Badenoch said: "When I went to Epping two weeks ago and spoke to the mums and dads, they just wanted their local area to be safe and the Government to listen to their concerns, instead of ignoring them.

"It's bad enough that Labour are trying to take credit for halving the number of asylum hotels, when that happened during the last Conservative government. It's even worse it took a Conservative council winning an injunction to finally get Keir Starmer's attention.

"Now I'm determined to give other excellent Conservative councillors the tools they need to take on this incompetent Labour Government."

And new analysis - seen by the Sunday Express - revealed three in four local authorities are now housing more asylum seekers this year than they did last year.

Home Office data, analysed by the Centre for Migration Control, show Birmingham council has taken another 800 asylum seekers in the past year.

Telford and Wrekin is now hosting more than 700 asylum seekers, up from 218 in 2023-2024.

In West Northamptonshire, the figure has ballooned from four to 455.

Hillingdon, the London borough hosting the highest number of asylum seekers, is now accommodating 2,481 people.

Warwick Council has seen the number skyrocket from 72 to 420.

Trafford Council has also seen the number of asylum seekers it is supporting rise from 150 to 419.

Some 66,000 asylum seekers are also living in dispersal accommodation - houses, flats and bedsits.

The Tories also warned of "an explosion in the number of asylum seekers being housed in towns and villages across the country".

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "Labour are turning every corner of Britain into a dumping ground for their asylum crisis. It doesn't matter if you live in a city suburb, a market town, or a quiet village, nowhere is being spared.

"People who have lived in the same street for decades now wake up to find their community overwhelmed overnight, with services stretched and safety put at risk. Local voices are ignored, objections brushed aside, and families left powerless."

Responding to Thursday's bombshell figures, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "We inherited a broken immigration and asylum system that the previous Government left in chaos.

"Since coming to office, we have strengthened Britain's visa and immigration controls, cut asylum costs and sharply increased enforcement and returns, as today's figures show.

"The action we have taken in the last 12 months - increasing returns of failed asylum seekers by over 30%, cutting asylum costs by 11%, reducing the backlog by 18% and our forthcoming plans to overhaul the failing asylum appeal system - are crucial steps to restoring order, and putting an end to the chaotic use of asylum hotels that we inherited from the previous government.

"As we roll out further reforms, including the new pilot with France, new counter terror powers to strengthen border security, and new asylum reforms later this year (including reforms to speed up the persistent delays in the appeals system), we will continue to take the serious steps required to restore order, control and fairness to the system and to continue building the foundations of a new and stronger approach."