Tory Shadow Minister Robert Jenrick has sided with anti-migrant hotel protesters in Epping by joining them in the Essex town.
Demonstrators have been calling on authorities to shut down a hotel housing asylum seekers.
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Speaking on GB News, Mr Jenrick told Ben Leo why he is backing demonstrators.
“I haven’t been down to one of these before but I was driving into to London and I knew this was going to be happening”, he said.
Robert Jenrick joined protesters in Epping
|GB NEWS / PA
“I wanted to come and show my support and solidarity for everyone here. I have been writing about this and I have been in the media.
“I felt I should come down and say, ‘I support these guys’, I understand why they are doing this and they are right to do it.
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“170,000 people, mostly young men, have broken into our country. We’ve had all these hotels and we are spending billions of pounds on this.
“I think the patience of the British people has snapped and frankly, it probably snapped a long time ago.”
Robert Jenrick spoke to Ben Leo on GB News
|GB NEWS
Since the protests erupted, a migrant from Syria living in the hotel has been charged has been charged with sexual assault.
Mohammed Sharwarq, 32, also faced two counts of common assault and four of assault by beating, concerning four complainants, at a hearing before magistrates in Chelmsford earlier this month.
Essex Police said the offences were alleged to have taken place between 25 July and 12 August.
Mr Sharwarq has been living at the hotel in Epping where a number of protests have taken place in recent weeks.
PICTURED: Protesters take to the streets in Epping in their continued demonstration against the hotel | PACounter-protesters have often arrived accusing those of speaking out against migrant hotels of being ‘far-right’.
Unrest has led to Epping Forest District Council applying fora High Court injunction in a bid to halt the housing of asylum seekers at the hotel.
At a High Court hearing on Friday, the council told the court that “allowing the status quo is wholly unacceptable, providing a feeding ground for unrest”.
The council presented documents to the court arguing the hotel’s use poses a “danger to school-age students about to start the new school year, a valid source of anxiety for their parents and teachers, and a disfigurement of the local environment”.
In July, demonstrators marched towards the hotel after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault for allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
It has become a feeding ground for unrest in the weeks since with anti and pro-immigration protesters arriving at the site.
The Government has committed to ending the use of hotels as a means to house asylum seekers by 2029.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set out plans in June to save £1bn a year by phasing out hotels.
She pledged £200m to “cut the asylum backlog, hear more appeal cases and return people who have no right to be here”.