Councils up and down the country could now take action after last night's bombshell ruling in Epping.

It comes after the High Court temporarily blocked asylum seekers from being housed in a hotel in Epping Forest.

The ruling causes issues for the Home Office, which now has less than a month to find alternative accommodation for the asylum seekers currently housed at the Essex hotel.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that the migrants housed at the Essex hotel "need to be moved out of the area immediately".

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said that "residents should never have had to fight their own government just to feel safe in their own town...local residents have every right to feel safe in their own streets and every right to object when their community is treated as a dumping ground".

Labour has pledged to no longer use hotels by the end of this Parliament; however, some contracts remain in place until 2029.

Councils controlled by Reform UK will "do everything in their power to follow Epping's lead", according to party leader Nigel Farage. Tory led Broxbourne Borough Council also said it is considering taking similar action.

All told, GB News has identified 11 councils that could now take up the baton (see map below).

The councils where challenges could be made

Broxbourne Council was the first local authority to declare it was seeking legal advice after the ruling "as a matter of urgency about whether it could take a similar action".

The Conservative MP for the Hertfordshire town, Lewis Cocking, admitted that failures from previous Tory Governments led to a huge asylum hotel blunder.

Responding to a CCHQ advert which listed the perks given to asylum seekers, Mr Cocking said: "This makes us look silly as we gave them all this too, which is why we are in the mess we are in today.

"Completely unacceptable, they should be put in detention centres and deported."

Protesters take to the streets in Epping in their continued demonstration against the hotel | PA

The leader of Staffordshire County Council said it will be exploring its options after Tuesday’s High Court ruling to remove asylum seekers from a hotel in Essex.

Reform UK councillor Ian Cooper said: "We welcome this ruling and will be in contact with our district and borough council partners to explore what options this now gives us in Staffordshire.

"The control and protection of our country’s borders is a national issue, but the impact of central government policy is felt in communities across Staffordshire.

"I have already written to the Home Secretary on this issue, stating that the ongoing use of hotels for the purpose of asylum is unacceptable and poses a serious risk to local communities as well as the residents themselves."

Councillor Ian Cooper has offered his take | PA/GB NEWS

Leader of West Northamptonshire Council Mark Arnull said in a statement: “We have always been clear with the Government and the public that the current use of three hotels in West Northamptonshire have never been suitable locations for asylum accommodation and place an unreasonable and unsustainable strain on our already-stretched local services.”

The Reform UK councillor added: “We also know these hotels cause concerns for our communities and I have raised these issues with the Home Office and written to the Deputy Prime Minister about the wider use of asylum accommodation within our community.

“We are currently considering the implications of this judgment to understand any similarities and differences and are actively looking at the options now available to us. As such I am unable to comment further at this stage but will issue a further update when able to do so.

“In the meantime, we will continue to work with partners in the police and in our communities to make sure that residents’ concerns are heard and addressed.”

All 12 councils controlled by Reform UK will "do everything in their power to follow Epping's lead", the party's leader Nigel Farage said.

Other councils controlled by Reform that could take action are:

However, not all Conservative councils that have seen protests in their towns take action.

The leader of South Norfolk District Council has confirmed the council would not go down the same route.This includes the town of Diss, where a hotel housing asylum seekers has also been the subject of protests.

Conservative leader Daniel Elmer said the council was using planning rules to try to ensure it was families being housed in the area rather than single adult males.

He said: "We make a big play about integration, and to replace families who have children in the local school system and have integrated into the local community would make no sense."