A legal challenge to immediately stop asylum seeking children being housed at a hotel where scores have gone missing has failed.

The high court injunction, applied for by Brighton and Hove City Council, intended to stop the children being housed at hotels in the city in order to keep them safe.

While the challenge was declined, a renewed bid to prevent the policy will now be argued again at a later date.

Council leader Bella Sankey said: “We’re disappointed our injunction has been declined today, but this is just the first stage in our drive to protect these vulnerable children.

“The court made clear it recognises the gravity of the situation that has been allowed to develop, and we now look forward to being able to argue our full claim at the earliest opportunity.

“The Home Office has given undertakings to the Court to provide notice to the council if it intends to use the hotel, and we have permission to apply again for an injunction if that is the case.”

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High Court Judge Mr Justice Johnson heard at a hearing on Friday that the council was challenging a Home Office plan to re-use a hotel in the Brighton area from which migrant children have previously gone missing.

The Argus previously revealed that 139 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children had been reported missing to Sussex Police, with 50 still unaccounted for.

At the hearing, the home office heard that unaccompanied children as young as nine had been housed in hotels such as the one in Brighton across the country.

Around 40 per cent of the children housed are reported to be under 16 years old.

A trial on the issue is expected to take place later this summer.

Peter Kyle, MP for Hove and Portslade, told The Argus: “Home Office ministers have repeatedly assured us that asylum seeking children housed in hotels were ages sixteen and above.

“It is becoming clearer by the day that this accommodation is in appropriate and unsafe. It’s also clear that ministers cannot be trusted to tell the truth when it comes to what is happening within asylum hotels."