Former Immigration Minister Tom Pursglove has declared he has "no sympathy" for Labour ministers after Epping Forest Council secured victory over the use of an asylum hotel.
Speaking to GB News, Mr Pursglove said the High Court ruling is a "wake-up call" to the Government and called for an effective deterrent to be put in place.
A High Court judge granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction to block asylum seekers from being housed at The Bell Hotel, following continued mass protest from locals.
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Tom Pursglove has declared Epping's asylum hotel victory a 'wake up call' for Labour ministers
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Discussing the ruling on GB News, Mr Pursglove said: "I'm afraid I have no sympathy whatsoever for the position that ministers find themselves in, because this is the direct consequence of the choices that they had made.
"Undoubtedly, our time in Parliament, we hadn't solved this issue in the way that we wanted to, we hadn't got to that concluding point of putting a final stop to these Channel crossings. But what was beginning to happen was we were beginning to see numbers drop off, we were beginning to close hotels."
He explained: "James Cleverly and I, Robert Jenrick, prior to that, closed 188 of these hotels, and we'd got a meaningful deterrent that was stopping people making those crossings. On day one, they [Labour] ripped up the Rwanda deterrent.
"They cancelled some of the cheaper, more basic level accommodation that we had put in place, for example, at RAF Scampton and the Bibby Stockholm.
"Those choices have now come home to roost, and I think that this must be a wake-up call for ministers that they have to do something remarkably different and put aside political dogma that's driven their decisions to date."
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Protests in Epping have led to the council winning its bid to block asylum seekers from being housed at the migrant hotel | PAThe former Conservative MP anticipated that Reform UK councils will "inevitably" mount legal challenges centred on planning regulations, specifically targeting change of use provisions.
Mr Pursglove told GB News: "I think it's inevitable that Reform councils will come forward with these legal challenges, because this case has rested on this very specific point about change of use.
"Now, I would imagine that that is pertinent in the case of a lot of these hotels, and it would undoubtedly drive a coach and horses through the asylum accommodation situation."
He argued that politicians must move beyond focusing solely on accommodation issues and address the fundamental problem of preventing Channel arrivals.
Epping locals celebrated the victory outside the migrant hotel
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He stated: "I actually think that we get so bogged down in some of the consequences of what happens, but what we've actually got to focus on here is putting a stop to the flow of people coming, because all the while that you don't do that, you're going to continue to have this problem, you're going to continue to have the need for accommodation.
"I think what we've actually got to do, and politicians on all sides of the debate really need to get behind now, is doing whatever is necessary within our laws to make sure that we can send people to a third country, because that is the only way you're going to stop this."
The former minister dismissed the returns deal with France and warned that migrants are "going to keep coming" unless Government "moves the situation on".
Mr Pursglove concluded: "The French aren't interested in taking all of these people back. You've got to be willing politically to do whatever is necessary to move this situation on, and while people think they can get in a small boat, get to the United Kingdom and be able to stay here, they're going to keep coming."