Epping has found itself at the centre of a controversy over asylum seekers being housed in hotels in the past week. The Essex town, with a population of about 12,000 and which sits at the end of the Central line on the London Underground network, has seen more 1,000 people take part in two protests.

S ix people have been arrested as a protest about a migrant hotel escalated into "mindless thuggery". More than 100 demonstrators gathered outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex,