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Residents in a town where Labour runs the local council are fed up of migrant hotels. Demonstrations were held in towns and cities across the UK at the weekend, including Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle, Aberdeen and Perth.

Protesters also turned out in Tamworth, Staffordshire, where a Holiday Inn Express is being used to accommodate asylum seekers. The town was the scene of violent disorder last summer sparked by misinformation that the murderer of three young girls in Southport in July 2024 was an illegal immigrant.

Hundreds of protesters descended on the Holiday Inn Express in Tamworth in August 2024 where missiles including fireworks, a petrol bomb, bricks, chunks of concrete and lampposts were hurled at the hotel and Staffordshire Police officers. In the aftermath of the unrest, some locals turned out to clear up debris outside the hotel, where graffiti had been daubed on a wall, reading: "Get out of England".

Home Office figures show 232 asylum seekers were housed in hotels in Tamworth as of June 2025. The total is among the highest by local authority. It compares to Aberdeen's 364, Birmingham's 1,226, Manchester's 1,158 and 615 in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

The London borough of Hillingdon recorded the highest, at 2,238. Its total represented a fall from the 2,681 previously recorded.

A protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Tamworth on Sunday (August 24) was reportedly peaceful. Protester, Liam, 22, who didn't give his full name, told the Telegraph: "We're trying to make our voice heard."

He asked what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is actually doing to smash the people smuggling gangs, adding "everyone" at the protest agreed there was nothing wrong with legal migration, but people were worried about "the unknown factor".

Fellow protester, Jacqueline Bostock, 73, said: "How many of them are terrorists? We don't know. That's what bothers me... I'm not racist."

Labour-led Tamworth Borough Council's leader, Carol Dean, said on Wednesday that she understood the strong feelings within the community over the use of the Holiday Inn to house asylum seekers.

She sought to reassure locals that the local authority was listening to their concerns and taking them seriously.

Ms Dean pointed to figures showing the use of hotels halving from 402 at their peak to 210 now. The Labour Government has pledged to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029.

But the council may be on course for a clash with the Government as it reviews its legal position following last week's High Court ruling on The Bell Hotel in Epping.

Epping Forest District Council secured a temporary injunction from the High Court last Tuesday, blocking the use of the hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers on planning grounds.

The decision prompted councils controlled by Labour, the Conservatives and Reform UK to consider whether they could pursue a similar course of action.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir is under mounting pressure to fix the migrant crisis, with recent polling showing voters think he is failing to grip the problem.

The Prime Minister and his ministers have set out measures to speed up the asylum appeals system to aid the removal of people with no right to be in the UK.

Labour former home secretary Lord David Blunkett said the Government had so far failed to offer a "comprehensive answer or an understandable narrative" on tackling the crisis.

So far this year a record 28,076 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats, 46% more than in the same period in 2024.

A YouGov poll for The Times found 71% of voters believe the PM is handling the asylum hotel issue badly, including 56% of Labour supporters.

The survey of 2,153 people carried out between August 20-21 found 37% of voters viewed immigration and asylum as the most important issue facing the country, ahead of 25% who said the economy and 7% who said the health service.

Lord Blunkett told The Times while measures already taken by the Government were "extremely helpful", more action is vital to gain control of delivery and the public narrative.

He suggested temporarily suspending elements of the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Refugee Convention to deal with the problem.

Border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said Labour was "clearing up the mess of the previous government".

She wrote in the Daily Mirror: "Our reforms will resolve appeals faster, get people out of hotels and cut costs to taxpayers.

"No gimmicks, no games, this real work is all part of our system-wide approach to delivering necessary, lasting change."