The Shadow Home Secretary has launched a scathing attack on the Government's management of asylum accommodation, warning that Labour could choose to house illegal migrants in "free flats" instead of hotels.

Speaking to GB News, Chris Philp warned that Conservative-led councils such as Broxbourne and Hillingdon are now considering following in Epping's footsteps and taking legal action against the use of hotels.

Delivering his verdict on the ruling over The Bell Hotel, Mr Philp said: "The Conservative Government closed The Bell Hotel, we also managed to reduce the number of hotels by about 200 in our last nine months in office and had that trend continued by now, there wouldn't be any asylum hotels at all.

"Unfortunately, what has happened since the general election is that in the first nine months after that election, the number of people in asylum hotels is far from continuing to go down, in fact it went up by around about 10 per cent from 29,000 to 32,000."

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp warned of migrants being housed in 'free flats' after Epping hotel victory

Mr Philp revealed that Conservative-led local authorities are beginning to "mount legal challenges" against asylum accommodation in their areas, including Broxbourne, Hillingdon and Reigate.

He told GB News: "Councils are fighting back, led by Conservative-run Epping, and we're now calling on other Conservative councils to look at legal challenges as well, and many are doing so, including Broxbourne next door.

"Epping started this with their successful challenge, and many other Conservative councils are now looking at doing the same, including Hillingdon, Reigate and many others, because they are sick and tired of these asylum hotels housing mainly young men, pretty much all of whom crossed the Channel illegally and unnecessarily."

The Shadow Home Secretary outlined his proposed solution to Channel crossings, advocating for a system where all illegal arrivals face immediate removal.

Mr Philp told GB News: "The reason people are in hotels is that illegal immigrants are crossing the English Channel in record numbers under this Government, and that needs to stop.

"We need a deterrent where 100 per cent of people arriving illegally get immediately removed, either back to their country of origin if possible, or to a safe third country if not.

Epping locals celebrated the victory outside the migrant hotel following the verdict on Tuesday | GB NEWS

"If everybody gets removed immediately on arrival, pretty soon people are going to stop bothering to try in the first place, common sense tells you that.

"We put a plan to a vote in Parliament just a few weeks ago, which included repealing the Human Rights Act for immigration matters to make it work legally, what did Labour do? They voted against it.

"And because they're being so weak on borders, we've got the worst ever year for illegal crossings.

"So that is how you really fix it, you stop the problem at the source by stopping the illegal immigration in the first place, which is completely unacceptable, because no one's fleeing war in France."

The Shadow Home Secretary also expressed deep concern about potential Government plans to transfer asylum seekers into "free flats" and residential properties, at the cost of young British property renters.

Mr Philp stated: "I wrote to Yvette Cooper just yesterday asking for her assurance that people being moved out of the Epping hotel, about 150 people, should not be moved into flats or into HMOs, because there are young people here in this country struggling to get onto the housing ladder, struggling to find affordable accommodation, and it would be deeply, deeply unfair if apartments and rooms that British young people might rent get instead given to illegal immigrants for free.

Mr Philp told GB News that Labour has 'lost control of our borders'

"There are other accommodation options, we had a barge in the past, you can put up prefabricated temporary accommodation on empty sites, all kinds of options the Government should be pursuing.

"They should not be moving people into apartments and HMOs, and I will be tracking the data very carefully to make sure they don't do that.

"People are understandably angry, and that is why other Conservative-led councils will be mounting legal challenges, supported by me and by Kemi [Badenoch].

Admitting his "suspicions" that private accommodation is Labour's next step, Mr Philp concluded: "I'm very suspicious that what the Government plan to do is move people out of hotels and into those flats, but that would be completely wrong because there are lots of young people here who need those apartments.

"But let's not forget the reason this is a problem. Labour has lost control of our borders and the numbers crossing the Channel are the worst in history.

"That is the root cause of this, because the Government is too weak to take the action needed to fix this."