Yvette Cooper must chair an emergency Cabinet meeting and develop plans to deport every illegal migrant “upon arrival”, Chris Philp has declared.

The Shadow Home Secretary insisted Ms Cooper must “resolve” the “crisis you have created” following a bombshell High Court ruling on Tuesday.

The future of more than 200 migrant hotels was thrown into doubt after a judge granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction to prevent asylum seekers being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping.

This followed weeks of protests after a resident was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl.

And Mr Philp declared Labour must commit to housing more migrants on former military bases and reopen asylum barges, rather than shunting them into communities.

He wrote, in a letter to Labour’s Home Secretary: “Up and down the country people are furious about the number of illegal migrants being housed in hotels – which rose in the nine months following the election under Labour.

“People are also concerned that you are now moving people from hotels into apartments and other accommodation which is sorely needed by young people here who are struggling under this Labour government.

“Given this crisis unfolding on your watch and the concern about where the Epping migrants will go, will you:

• “Hold an emergency Cabinet meeting to establish plans for the deportation of all illegal immigrants upon arrival and to resolve the migrant crisis you have created – just as the government recently held an emergency cabinet meeting on recognising Palestine.
• “Commit that none of the illegal immigrants currently in the Bell Hotel will be moved into hotels, HMOs, apartments, or social housing which are much needed for British people. The previous government established alternative accommodation on current or former military sites and an accommodation barge, which are all alternative options while deportation plans are put in place.”

The Bell was reopened by Labour in April after a surge in small boat arrivals, it is understood. It had been closed in early 2024. The Home Office had warned the High Court that a temporary injunction could have a devastating impact on its asylum accommodation plans.

Barristers, acting on behalf of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, warned of a surge of “similar applications made elsewhere that would then aggravate pressures on the asylum estate”. Injunction applications could become a “new norm adopted by local authorities”, they added.

The Home Office lawyers also suggested that granting the injunction “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests”.

But Mr Philp accused Labour of fuelling the small boats crisis by scrapping the Rwanda deterrent. He wrote: “This migration crisis has happened because you made the catastrophic decision the cancel the Rwanda deterrent just before it was due to start, with no replacement plan.

“The Rwanda scheme would have seen every illegal immigrant deported upon arrival and made it impossible to claim asylum if you entered the UK illegally.”

Ministers are desperately drawing up contingency plans to house asylum seekers amid fears more migrant hotels will be ordered to close.

Security minister Dan Jarvis told Times Radio on Wednesday: “We’re looking at a range of different contingency options following from a legal ruling that took place yesterday, and we’ll look closely at what we’re able to do.”

Asked whether other migrant hotels have the proper planning permission, Mr Jarvis said: “Well, we’ll see over the next few days and weeks.

“Other local authorities will be considering whether they wish to act in the same way that Epping (Forest) District Council have. I think the important point to make is that nobody really thinks that hotels are a sustainable location to accommodate asylum seekers.

“That’s precisely why the Government has made a commitment that, by the end of this Parliament, we would have phased out the use of them.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has indicated that councils run by his party will consider their own legal challenges.

However, a number of these councils do not have responsibility for planning permission, which may limit their ability to launch legal challenges.

Mr Farage also called for peaceful protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers to put pressure on local authorities to take the same route as Epping Forest.

Writing in The Telegraph, he said: “Now the good people of Epping must inspire similar protests around Britain. Wherever people are concerned about the threat posed by young undocumented males living in local hotels and who are free to walk their streets, they should follow the example of the town in Essex.

“Let’s hold peaceful protests outside the migrant hotels, and put pressure on local councils to go to court to try and get the illegal immigrants out; we now know that together we can win.”