The Government Prepares To Fight Asylum Hotel Ruling

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.4 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we discuss the government seeking the right to appeal against a High Court ruling blocking a hotel in Essex from housing asylum seekers.

Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary injunction to stop people being placed at the Bell Hotel earlier this week. The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper unsuccessfully tried to get the case dismissed by intervening at the last minute.

Adam speaks to BBC political correspondent Alex Forsyth, Dominic Casciani, BBC home and legal affairs correspondent and Luke Tryl, a pollster from the More in Common think tank.

We recorded the podcast live on BBC Radio 5 Live, while Adam filled in for Matt Chorley.

You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere

Get in touch with Newscast by emailing [email protected] or send us a whatsapp on +44 0330 123 9480.

New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Flynn with Shiler Mahmoudi. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:04.8	Hello, thanks for your messages about the previous episode of newscast about the start of the Israeli incursion into northern Gaza, which was focused on Gaza City.
0:14.3	The development today on Fridays, I'm speaking to you now, is that the IPC, which is the UN-backed body that measures global hunger, has now declared
0:23.2	that there is a famine in Gaza city and there is the risk of famine in other parts of Gaza
0:29.3	very soon. That's prompted another round of international condemnation from people like
0:35.1	David Lammy, the British Foreign Secretary, but it's also prompted another round of denials by the Israeli government
0:40.7	that there is any famine happening at all
0:43.3	and increased pressure on the Israeli government to do more
0:46.2	to let food aid into Gaza.
0:48.7	So a repeat of that sort of thing as well.
0:52.1	Now, you might have noticed that this week I've been moonlighting. I've
0:55.4	been filling in from Matt Chorley on Five Live between 2 and 4 o'clock every day, doing his
1:00.3	politics show. And we thought, why don't we take advantage of that and record an episode of
1:06.1	newscast live on Five Live? So listeners of Five Live can get an insight into what you listen to every day. And also
1:13.9	just hear the podcast being made in real time. So that is what you're going to hear. And the format is
1:19.3	yeah, lots of newscast regulars. And we're going to look back at kind of the big story of the
1:24.3	week, which is the ruling about the asylum hotel in Epping, and just all the
1:28.8	consequences that have flown from that and what it tells us about politics and life in Britain
1:33.7	in 2025. So that is what you will hear next. But what you'll hear first, and you're the second
1:39.3	people to hear this, because the first people to hear it were listeners of Five Live, is the brand new
1:44.2	newscast trademark opening titles.
1:47.3	Newscast.
	...

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