Well, this is Sky News in just a moment.
The press preview, a first look at what
is on the front pages. First though, a
reminder of our top stories this
evening. Asylum seekers are set to be
removed from a hotel in Eping in Essex
after the local council won the backing
of the high court. Donald Trump sets out
a red line of no US boots on the ground
as part of security guarantees for
Ukraine with the White House rejecting
claims that he's been swayed by Vladimir
Putin. And an Israeli official has
demanded the release of all hostages in
Gaza, casting doubt on the ceasefire
proposal already agreed to by Hamas.
Well, hello there. You're watching the
press preview. A first look at what is
on the front pages. Time to see what's
making the headlines then with the
journalist and broadcaster Sonia Soda
and the deputy editor of Conservative
Home Henry Hill. Welcome and lovely to
see both of you. So, as ever, let's
check out the front pages, shall we?
Kicking off with the Telegraph and the
High Court injunction stopping a hotel
in Essex being used to house asylum
seekers is top story for that paper,
which says that the ruling could force
many more such hotels across the country
to close. So, to the Guardian then,
which says the people housed in the Bell
Hotel in Eping will now have to be moved
out. The I says the ruling has left the
government's entire migrant policy in
disarray. And that word disarray is also
used by the Daily Mail to sum up the uh
development of the court ruling. A
victory for moms is how the Express sees
it, referencing the allegations that one
asylum seeker sexually assaulted a young
girl.
Meanwhile, as the worldwaits the next
move towards peace in Ukraine, the
Financial Times reports that President
Trump may use US air power to help
guarantee Ukraine security. An angry
backlash to fears of the chancellor
making house sellers instead of buyers
pay tax on property transactions. Over
half a million pounds is top story for
the Metro. Daily Star says there's
growing anger at a new trend in some
pubs of adding a service charge when
people buy a pint of beer, while The Sun
speaks to Oasis star Null Gallagher
about his brother Liam after they ended
their feud and went back on tour. So,
let's bring in Sonia and Henry. Many of
the newspapers dominating uh dominated
rather by Eping Forest and that asylum
Hotel. Um Henry, first of all, what does
this mean for the government and what
kind of pickle is the home office now
in?
>> I mean, don't mess with the British
planning system, uh the single most
powerful force in all the land, uh it
could be absolutely huge. So what's
happened here is that Eping Forest
Council uh took a court case where it
effectively argued that the owner of the
Bell Hotel by transferring their
business effectively into leasing it to
the home office. They had undertaken a
material change of use and that this
breached the planning permission and
therefore that's illegal because you
know and that means theoretically if
this is upheld every single hotel that
wants to take the home office shilling
has to go to the local council and get
permission. Now, this hugely increases
the the potential for local councils who
are very responsive to local concerns to
just veto them. Previously, this has
been something over which areas have had
no real control. It's been private
businesses leazing directly with the
home office. This suddenly creates a way
by which councils could block hotels and
that could styy the whole program.
>> 32,000 uh migrants in hotels according
to latest home office figures which date
back from March. It's about a third of
those that need housing in 210 hotels. I
remember down from 400 I think as a
maximum. Um where do those 32,000 people
now go?
>> Well, this is just relating to this one
specific hotel. And I think it's
important to say it's an interim
injunction that the high court has
issued as well. So what it means is that
this these legal proceedings are not
over. The high court has to consider
them in more detail. But in the interim
until it does, it's saying that in the
case of this particular hotel, it cannot
be used to house these asylum seekers
anymore. Um, and you know, as Henry
says, this could have massive
ramifications. The reason I think it's
important to be clear about the reason
why we've got over 30,000 um asylum
seekers in hotels. The main reason for
this is it's true that there's been an
increase in the number of people seeking
asylum in the UK um in recent years, but
the main reason we've got such a backlog
is that under the last Conservative
government, they basically stopped
processing asylum seekers altogether and
said, "Look, we're just detaining you
all indefinitely. We're not going to
process your claims." And that led to,
you know, a huge huge backlog. The
processing rates, I mean, they were
already very low since 2014. They were
dropping. And then they just literally
>> just to clarify, is that because they
basically said if you've arrived by
small boat, we will not class you as an
asylum seeker. You were you're classed
as an illegal migrant. Therefore, we
won't process you under asylum rules. Is
that
>> Yeah. But then that basically just meant
that the government had to detain people
and there's nowhere to detain them. So
lots of them were put up in hotels
anyway. So essentially what you went
from is a system where people were being
processed quite quickly back until 2014.
Then the processing rate really slowed
and then you just had this growing pool
of asylum seekers not being processed by
the system and at at one point you know
I think it was 2023 it just stopped. So
it's created this huge issue. Other
countries in Europe are not using hotels
in the same way because they've kept on
proing processing their asylum seekers
and you know the idea is if someone's
got the right to stay they get the right
they get the right to stay. If not they
should be deported and we're very very
bad at that in the UK as well. Now,
processing rates have increased quite a
lot since Labour came into power, but
they've still got this big backlog to
deal with. And the issue is that there
isn't just enough other sort of
temporary accommodation to put asylum
seekers in and the government is legally
obliged to house them, which is why
they're using hotels. It's it's led to a
huge spike in the cost of
>> not private private what?
>> Yeah. Sort of um yeah, private
buildings, you know, like not hotels
essentially. So it would be you know
sort of um social housing kind of
temporary accommodation um uh uh so yeah
but not hotels. So we never really used
to use hotels and the cost of the asylum
seek system has has gone up by more than
10fold since 2014 and that a lot of that
is driven by the government being forced
to use hotels because they've literally
run out of space because we've got this
massive ratching up of people arriving
you know. Well, well, actually it's well
it's interesting because that is a one
factor, but a bigger factor has been
that the government basically just
stopped processing claims at one point.
So, it's it's both, but actually it's
the drop off in processing rates that
has created that I think has been a
bigger driver of the backlog. Obviously
people increasing in uh arriving in
increased numbers has also had an impact
but when you look at the scale it's
basically the government basically just
stopping processing these claims to
tears and a real drop off in rates from
2014 onwards. So it's it's a mess of the
government's own making and it's mostly
the conservative government's own
making.
>> Well and you know the home office here
in this case under a Labor government
stepped in very late to try and stop
this did it not? If it done it earlier
it might have you know been
>> well no the processing rates have gone
up since Labour
>> I'm talking about this court case now.
I'm talking about the court.
>> Oh, yes. They intervened.
>> They intervened very late and they
intervened said, "Oh, this is going to
stop our legal responsibility with, you
know, asylum seekers and and make a
material, where's the quote here? Uh, in
the Telegraph, um, it will aggravate
pressures on the asylum estate was the
quote, but I think the judge decided
they were too late. The I migrant policy
and disarray as court rules uh protest
hotel must evict asylum seekers. Is it
quite, you know, fair to say that first
of all, city centers, town centers are
not the right place to hise asylum
seekers. Many people questioning why are
they allowed out anyway? Some of them
don't have papers. We don't know who
they are and where they've come from.
>> And the other on the other side is
should we just let people work? So they
partly pay their own bills.
>> So the challenge with letting people
work is that then the asylum system, one
of the things that governments are
trying to do is to keep a real firewall
between the asylum system and and legal
migration and economic migration. And
one of the problems is if you allow
asylum seekers to work is that yes, they
can pay for their keep, but on the other
hand, suddenly that's a vector for
economic migration and they're moving
into the gray economy and the low wage
economy and that's not something that
governments want to do. So you end up
with this
>> aren't they moving into the gray economy
anyway.
>> Well well the gray economy, yes, but if
you legalized it, obviously that would
simply lift the any lid that there
currently is on that and that that's the
that's the reason the governments
haven't done it, of course, because
suddenly you've got tens of thousands of
people who would be entitled to work.
The the home office mentioned an asylum
estate. The problem is we really don't
have an asylum estate. What you should
have in this country is government-owned
centers where you house where you house
these people. There would be an upfront
cost to building those, but the long run
cost would be much lower. And as you
say, it would reduce the tensions that
come because whatever you think about
the hotel policy and yes, lots it's bad.
They're never popular, right? If it's in
the middle of a town center, you have
all of the complaints that you
>> people also say, why have they got a
Kushy on suite bedroom, you know, when I
can't afford proper accommodation in the
city. So that's part of the flex point
anger.
>> So this is part of the anger. But if you
so if you put them in town centers,
there's that. If you put them in rural
communities, often the local hotel is
one of is is one of the few businesses
in the area and it will have been
something where people had weddings and
so on and all of a sudden it's a home
office outpost, right? But if you don't
have hotels and you don't have a
purpose-built asylum estate, the option
which this government has flirted with
in the past is private accommodation,
right? Going and buying up things off
the private rented market, for example,
and so on. And if you think hotels are
unpopular, just wait until you have this
distributed across tens of thousands of
properties around the country.
>> So what about the baby Stockholms of
this of this world or the idea of camps
as chemade not raised last week as a
prospect?
>> Well, we don't call we wouldn't call
them camps, I don't think. Has a very
bad word. I think she did um which is
which is firing from the hip. I but
having a purpose-built you know facility
in sight because that also means
>> yeah there are other European so the the
reason why other European countries do
not face these hotel bills is lots of
them have got purpose-built centers uh
where they where they house people who
are caught up in the system. Let's not
forget that many of these asylum seekers
the majority of them are granted refuge
because they are genuine asylum seekers
with rights to claim refuge. you know,
they're coming from countries like
Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq. So, I think
that's really important. Well, but
they're not originally from
>> But I think the point I think I do think
I do think it's important to note when
we talk about this is that one of the
the government and a lot of the voters,
they do think these people are coming
from safe countries and that they
shouldn't be coming here. And it's
important also to when we talk about
cost of the asylum system, people who
receive a sexual successful asylum
claims, they do still then cost the
state money. I think sometimes we talk
about bringing down if you treat the
budget in isolation. Oh, we can we can
cut the asylum bill by X, but that does
have a waterbed effect elsewhere.
>> But then they are allowed to work
obviously and they're responsible for
their own housing costs. So
>> So then they're low wage immigration
which the voters also don't want just
>> Yeah. But I know but the scale I mean
the thing is Henry we live in a world
where we do have international
obligations under the refugee
convention. we have a system whereby if
people are fleeing genuinely fleeing
conflict torture, they do have a right
to claim asylum in a third country.
Well, you you I mean you might say that,
but that isn't the way the the
international system is not that you
have to claim asylum in the first safe
country you get to. Like that is just
not the system. And indeed, if it was,
it'd be massively unfair on countries
like Italy and Greece.
>> I've got I've got to get to the whole of
Trump and Ukraine and all the issues
surrounding that after the break. So uh
you know we will we will no doubt
discuss again but uh you know very it's
a very interesting and seemingly
intractable issue at the moment is it
not? Um yes looking at how the
newspapers are covering Trump's
announcement today that uh with this on
the front of the Guardian then US won't
send troops to Ukraine. That is uh his
latest pronouncement. back in a moment.
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>> Sky News, the full story first.
Well, welcome back. You are watching the
press preview with, as you heard there,
Sonia Soda and Henry Hill. Um, let's go
to uh Trump, shall we, and Ukraine and
the idea of security guarantees and what
involvement the US might have. Um, and
Sonia Trump hint said a US air role is
how the Financial Times writes it up
with no boots on the ground, which is I
mean, no surprise at all, obviously.
>> No, no surprise at all. I don't think we
were ever going to get that sort of
guarantee from Trump. But it sort of
really sums up with um the issues with
where we are, which is that essentially
you've got Trump saying on the one hand
there will be some sort of security
guarantee, but not really providing
anything crisp or precise around that.
And then you've got European leaders
who've got some ideas about what that
might be. You know, it definitely seems
like NATO membership is off the cards
because America isn't backing that. But
I think Europe would really like there
to be some soft sort of type of um you
know NATO guarantee whereby um you know
a guarantee of sort of uh support and
push back if there is a sort of another
Russian fullfrontal um invasion. Um but
you know clearly Trump is is is not
going there in terms of what he's
saying. So it's really a case I think of
the US and Europe being on different
pages. Trump is saying that the US
support might extend, for example, to
air air support in terms of security
guarantees for Ukraine. Europe really
does want there to be boots on the
ground, but you've got a situation where
Russia and Putin is saying that's
absolutely a red line. We don't want
European troops, certainly not NATO
troops, um, you know, under the
>> if they're individually badged, you
know, with an agreement by country and
possibly dressed up as training or
technical advice, you know, maybe they
go there. Just let's see the Guardian as
well. Similar headline. Trump US won't
send troops to Ukraine. And also the
same for the Daily Telegraph as well.
Air support but no boots on the ground
says Trump. Actually, there's a small
one on the I don't know if you can
probably see it. Um yeah, there's the uh
there's uh there's that. And as I said,
the Daily Telegraph as well. Just
interestingly as well, the um a White
House official has said that President
Trump spoke by phone to the Hungarian
Prime Minister Victor Orban. Orban a
close Trump ally. There are reports, not
confirmed actually, that Budapest could
be a potential location for a future
meeting between Presidents Putin and
Zalinski. The White House would not
confirm or deny any possible sites. And
Orban, I mean, Orban was very angry
yesterday that Ukrainians had hit a
Russian pipeline which helped supply uh
electricity to Hungary. So, you know, is
he is he kind of a good middleman? In
the meantime, in terms of how Zalinsky
approached Trump yesterday, um we've
seen footage now of Donald Trump
presenting uh presented with a putter, a
golf putter by President Zalinsky on
behalf of a Ukrainian soldier who in
who's playing golf as part of his
rehabilitation after losing his leg in
the war with Russia. We can listen to
that moment. Let's listen.
>> I just watched your swing. I know a lot
about golf and your swing is great. It
looks beautiful and you're going to be a
very good golfer very soon. But I also
want to thank you for this putter. It's
beautiful and it's made with real love
and it's given to me with real love from
you and I appreciate that. I have great
respect for you. You're an amazing
person and you just keep playing golf
and doing all of the other things. Your
country is a great country. We're trying
to bring it back to health and your
president is working very very hard to
make it that way. So again, I want to
thank you. Keep swinging and the putter
is beautiful. I'll use it. Every time I
sink a putt, I'll be thinking about you.
Thank you, Constantine.
>> Good.
>> Yeah. Speaking directly to that
Ukrainian soldier there. Part of the
show. I mean, it's all part of a show,
isn't it? To be fair.
>> I mean, yeah. Zalinsky in Ukraine sort
of were getting to grips with the Trump
phenomenon which is essentially it's
just emperor Nero is the head of the
west and you turn up and you kiss the
ring and you wear and you and you wear a
suit and you give him presents uh and
you butter him up and it does seem to be
going better than last time. I don't
think Zilinski has been really worse and
short of America invading Ukraine
itself. It could not really have gone
worse uh than last time. it
it the problem with all of this I don't
know if there have there's been a story
in recent times where the sort of column
inches to to content has been shorter
there's no reason for a deal you
fundamentally Putin's position and
Zilinsk's position is utterly in
irreconcilable and for all the good nude
music there's no reason to think there's
a landing zone
>> Henry Sonia so much more to discuss
thank you both indeed for now thank you
let's catch up with the weather