
Good Morning Britain's Kate Garraway challenged early education minister Stephen Morgan as the Home Office's bid to challenge the decision to temporarily block the owner of the Bell Hotel in Epping from housing asylum seekers is due to get underway at the Court of Appeal. As he appeared via videolink on the ITV show she put to him: "It's going to the appeal court today... government lawyers are... going to the appeal court today... to try and overturn that injunction against a hotel in Epping in Essex. Our viewers constantly say, read the room, come up with a solution to these asylum hotels. Do you back the government trying to overturn this injunction?"
Insisting he was completely behind the decision Morgan said: "Of course I do. We inherited an asylum system which was in chaos. We're taking action. We're working at pace to get this right. 35,000 people with no right to remain in the UK have now been deported. There's the landmark deal with France that we've secured. We've increased the number of decisions being made on asylum cases, and also, obviously, we're committed to ending asylum hotel use.
"It's already down to 200 up from 400 in the past, and we will do that by delivering on our manifesto commitment by the end of this Parliament. I understand people's frustrations. I am frustrated by the system by itself. We've got to take action, and we're actually committed to making that happen."
Garraway further challenged him referring to remarks made by the Chief Executive of the Refugee Council Enver Solomon earlier in the show. where he claimed they had a plan that would clear all asylum hotels within six months.
"What we're not going to do is to promise something which is a gimmick that doesn't achieve anything," Morgan said. "The previous government had the Rwanda scheme that was £700 million pounds that delivered four volunteers to Rwanda.
"These are serious issues. They require serious consideration, and what we're doing is investing in solutions that will make a difference on the deterrent, our partnership with France is key on preventing small boats, crossing, breaking, smashing those gangs, and then working hard on deportations and making sure we've got a fair asylum system with an appropriate appeal system in place to bring those numbers down. And this is absolutely something the government is prioritising."

Garraway's co-host Richard Madeley waded in asking Morgan if he was worried that this appeal will have the party "running full tilt into a gale of public opinion".
"Of course, there are people out there who support what you're doing, but the polls show, calls to this programme show every day, show that the vast majority of people have just had it," he said.
"Well, we've got a manifesto commitment to close all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament. That's exactly what we're getting on delivering where they were at 400 they're now down to 200," Morgan responded. "I understand people's frustrations, but we are relentlessly focused on achieving a system that works and is fair for the country.
2We've reduced the costs of asylum hotel accommodation from over £9million a year to now £5million pounds. More work is required, and that's absolutely priority for the Home Office and colleagues to make that happen."
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