Far-right groups 'hijack' anti-immigration protests - including demonstrations against RAF Scampton asylum scheme

“I’ve been called far left, I’ve been called far right, depending on who I talk to,” Sarah Carter told me.

We were standing outside in a self-assembled hut. RAF ScamptonIt is a disused air force base in Lincolnshire that was once the home of Dunbarters.

She and others have been protesting against the Interior Ministry for the past year Plans to accommodate 2,000 asylum seekers In a portable cabin at the airport.

She would stay here for days at a time, swapping with friends, making it a permanent site of protest, and when I visited she had just received a new double bed.

Still, it was cold and the traffic whizzing by made conversation difficult.

Sarah, a Scampton local, saw other outsiders trying to woo their cause – the organized far right.

“The main group is pretty far-right,” Sarah told me.

“And then the people there may not know as much about us supporting them.”

Fights continued and police were frequently called out. Sarah said she and her husband were attacked by men wearing balaclavas.

Sarah said: “I’ve spoken to them and when you ask ‘What do you want?’ they say, ‘Britain is Britain’.

“He was asked, ‘Does this mean there are no black people?’ and they replied: ‘Well, ideally, but that’s not going to happen’.

“I think it’s pretty far right.”

Anti-immigration protests surge

Exclusive latest data analysis from Sky News shows anti-immigration protests are on the rise, with public demonstrations increasing 13-fold.

Experts worry Rightmost Some groups are exploiting local concerns to advance their nationalist agendas.

Other protesters at RAF Scampton said the far-right had harmed the overall cause.

In a separate encampment outside another entrance, Gary Lockwood, a currently unemployed retail warehouse worker, guards a watchtower he built himself.

He invited me up and said: “They come from out of town and out of Birmingham, some all over the place – it doesn’t really help our cause at all. They just seem to be causing problems.”

Asked if the issue was “not about immigration”, Mr Lockwood said: “Well, that’s part of the problem. But the biggest thing for me is the money and investment we’ve lost.”

At a third camp farther away, a separate group built its own camp in green, military colors.

Richard asked that his last name not be used.

“You always have an element of organization that gets involved and takes advantage of it,” he said.

“The more people involved, they may have their own views that you would consider to be far-right – or not.

“I would say there are factors involved. I’m not going to judge the people involved.”

The different camps outside Scampton – which have been occupied on frigid weekdays almost since the plan was announced – are emblematic of a trend: a rise in anti-immigration protests and growing confidence on the far right.

Sky News analysis shows there were 275 anti-immigration incidents in 2023, according to new data provided by advocacy group Hope Not Hate. This number was up from 116 cases the previous year.

Some 159 of these were visits, in which people attempted to gain access to hotels where migrants were being held. There were 116 demonstrations, a 13-fold increase from 2022.

There seems to be a shift from visits to demonstrations, depending on whether This far-right group is well known.

Patriotic Alternative – a far-right group whose founder is a senior figure in the British National Party (BNP) – had the highest number of public demonstrations with 21 known to the organizers, accounting for one-third of all demonstrations recorded 18%.

In contrast, institutions such as First UK and Yorkshire Rose made large numbers of visits and subsequently posted the information on social media, but received few demonstrations.

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“There is a rise in far-right anti-immigration activity in the UK,” said Joe Mulhall, director of the Center for the Study of Hope Not Hate.

“Every year, ‘Hope Not Hate’ campaigns increase, from harassment of hotel staff and asylum seekers, to demonstrations.

“Far-right groups see asylum seeker hotels as an opportunity to infiltrate local communities and recruit new members. They try to co-opt campaigns, set up front groups and spread their message.”

Sky News contacted Patriotic Choice and Britain First for comment.

A regional organizer for Patriotic Alternative North West told us it supports “all forms of peaceful political organizing, including protests, against immigration policies aimed at displacing the white population of the British Isles”.

The growing public confidence in far-right groups may be due to the mainstreaming of their language.

Politicians ‘no longer insulated from far-right language’

One of the patriotic alternative movement’s favorite slogans is “end the invasion” – a phrase echoed by the Palace of Westminster.

Former Home Secretary Suela Braverman caused huge controversy as she spoke of the “invasion of our southern coast.”

Tim Bell, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, said far-right ideas and language now spread easily online.

“I think politicians are no longer immune to the language and some of the behavior of the far right.

“They find this content on social media and are willing to use some of the words that these groups often chat about.

“So if we talk about words like swarm or invasion, this kind of language that talks about immigrants, I think we’ve seen an increase in that language, if you will, coming from the far right into the mainstream conversation. “