Labour is facing pressure over migrant hotels after more than 150,000 people signed a petition demanding their closure. The petition on the official Parliament website also calls for asylum seekers living in hotels to be deported.

It says: “The Labour Party pledged to end asylum hotels if it won power. Labour is now in power. It has transpired that the migrant hotels may stay open for at least the next 4 years. We want to see the migrant hotels shut down now and all illegal migrants housed in them deported immediately.”

The petition, which was started earlier this year but has recently seen a surge in support, could be debated by MPs after passing the 100,000-signature threshold.

In response to the petition, the Government said: “We are working as fast as possible to close asylum hotels and increase the removal of people with no right to be in the UK, but we inherited an asylum system in chaos, and we cannot fix it overnight.”

Labour had pledged to end the use of hotels to house migrants by 2029 by bringing down small boat Channel crossings and building new accommodation.

It comes as the future of migrant hotels has been thrown into doubt by a major court ruling.

The High Court ruled that asylum seekers should be removed from a hotel in Epping, Essex, following a legal challenge by the local council.

The hotel has been at the centre of a series of protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker who was staying there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

Ministers are now bracing for further legal action from town halls across the country.

The latest Home Office data showed there were 32,345 asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of March.

This was down 15% from the end of December, when the total was 38,079, and 6% lower than the 34,530 at the same point a year earlier.

But this year is on course to be a record for small boat arrivals with more than 27,000 people making the dangerous journey from France so far.