❓WHAT HAPPENED: Guests with prior bookings at the four-star Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf, London, were turned away without notice after Britain’s Home Office acquired the property to house asylum seekers. Staff were also reportedly fired.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The Home Office, Tower Hamlets Council, local police, and affected hotel guests.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Tuesday at the Britannia Hotel, located in Canary Wharf, London.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We are aware of the government’s decision to use the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.” – Tower Hamlets Council spokesman.
🎯IMPACT: Heightened security presence, booking suspensions, and increased political tension and social unrest over illegal immigrants being lavished with public money.
Visitors with existing reservations at the four-star Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf, London, were unexpectedly denied entry on July 22 after the British Home Office—roughly equivalent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—repurposed the property to house asylum seekers. Tourists were captured on video being refused access at the entrance, while security personnel stood behind locked glass doors. Major booking websites have since halted all reservations for the upscale, four-star hotel located in one of London’s most affluent districts. Staff were also reportedly fired.
Tower Hamlets Council has acknowledged the situation, confirming that the facility is being used to provide temporary shelter. A spokesman stated, “We are aware of the government’s decision to use the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers. It is important that the government ensures that there is a full package of support for those staying at the hotel. We are working with the Home Office and partners to make sure that all necessary safety and safeguarding arrangements are in place.”
The site has seen a noticeable increase in security, including police officers stationed at the entrance. Lee Anderson, a Member of Parliament (MP) for Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, commented on the situation: “It must cost a couple of hundred quid [pounds] a night to stay there. Most normal people in this country would not even be able to afford to come and stay here for a weekend.”
The Home Office has rejected any connection between the decision in Canary Wharf and recent disturbances in Epping, where tensions flared outside another asylum seeker hotel. That unrest followed the arrest of an Ethiopian migrant on multiple sexual assault allegations and led to confrontations between protesting families—branded “far-right” by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer—and pro-migrant counter-protesters, prompting the deployment of riot police.
Speaking about the Epping protests, Reform leader Nigel Farage voiced his support for residents: “Do I understand how people in Epping feel? You bet your life I do… Don’t underestimate the simmering anger and disgust that there is in this country that we are letting in every week, in fact, some days, many hundreds of undocumented young males, many of whom come from cultures in which women and young girls are not even treated as second-class citizens.”
In response to growing public unease, Prime Minister Starmer has urged immediate measures to prevent further disturbances. However, critics argue that the leftist Labour government has not effectively addressed immigration challenges, pointing to persistent levels of illegal entry and continued high rates of legal migration.
Canary Wharf.
The International Hotel is now in lockdown as they prepare for an influx of illegal migrants.
500 rooms here.
What are we playing at? pic.twitter.com/tDXOZdzXzX
— Lee Anderson MP (@LeeAndersonMP_) July 22, 2025
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