Epping protests: ‘Local concerns weaponised by the far-right’
For more than two weeks, protests have been taking place outside The Bell hotel housing migrants in Epping, Essex. What’s going on, and could this spread, similar to the Southport protests of 2024?
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In brief…
- Protests in Epping continued this weekend outside a hotel which has housed migrants, after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual offence after he allegedly tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
- LBC crime correspondent Andy Hughes, who visited the site during this weekend’s protest, says tensions are high due to far-right disinformation spread online, and people who are not local to the area travelling to the hotel to make their voices heard – including neo-Nazis.
- The News Agents say local people protesting do have legitimate concerns about who is being housed in their area, but believe they are being “weaponised” by people looking to spread hate.
What’s the story?
The leafy streets of Epping in Essex, have become a battleground this summer, with clashes between anti and pro-migration supporters taking place outside a migrant hotel.
Local protesters claim that the gatherings at The Bell Hotel were intended to be peaceful, but far-right groups have been travelling into the area and stirring up trouble. Recent protests have seen people jumping on police cars and engaging in violence.
They have been met with chants from rival groups, including Stand Up To Racism, referring to them as "Nazi scum" and racists, who also travelled into the area to protest.
“It's important to try and understand that there are very legitimate concerns here,” says Emily Maitlis.
“There are people who are deeply worried about the use of the hotel in their midst for people they don't know, for reasons they don't understand, particularly if crimes are being committed.
“And then there is highly organised, highly manipulated – very well produced activism – which is landing on these communities and pretending to be grassroots.”
She describes activities of some of the groups involved as an attempt to create and spread misinformation about the situation, and to make local people more angry, and more concerned, than they already were.
“For some people, they do feel more isolated, they do feel that the streets they grew up on don't look the same anymore,” Emily says.
“For others, this is weaponisation. This is politicisation.”
The protests first began on 13 July, after it emerged a 41-year-old man living at the hotel had been charged with sexual assault and harassment of a 14-year-old girl, after allegedly trying to kiss her.
The hotel has been housing migrants without incident in the suburb since 2020.
What's happening in Epping?
Andy Hughes, host of The Crime Agents and LBC’s crime correspondent, attended the Epping protest on Sunday 27 July, and estimates there were a few hundred people on either side – a notably smaller crowd than those seen in recent weeks.
As well as locals, the anti-migrant hotel protest was attended by members of the UK’s growing far-right, including from the Homeland Party, which splintered from Patriotic Alternative, the biggest neo-Nazi group in the country.
Far-right involvement hasn’t just been seen on the streets of Essex however. The Epping protests have been “jumped on” by extremist groups across the globe, with Hughes saying social media accounts on X, TikTok and more from Russia and across Europe have been sharing misinformation about the Bell Hotel online.
“When I spoke to the local people there, they actually said they don't want the far-right there,” Hughes tells The News Agents.
“But then they started repeating some of that misinformation.”
One local woman told Hughes that the counter protesters were “traitors to the country” if they consider those protesting racist or fascist, insisting people from Epping were on the streets because they were frightened their children could get “raped and abused” by people living in the hotel.
An attendee of the Stand Up To Racism counter-protest claimed that the people of Epping were being “taken advantage of” by the far-right, resulting in them standing side-by-side with extremists, such as the Homeland Party.
Could we see a repeat of the Southport riots?
In the summer of 2024, following the murder of three young girls (and the injuring of ten more people) in Southport, anti-migrant and anti-Muslim riots swept the UK – despite the murderer being neither a Muslim, or a migrant.
There have been concerns that what’s happened in Epping could escalate – but Andy Hughes says the situation in Epping is “slowly snowballing”, while far-right activity following Southport happened straight away, whipping people into mobs overnight.
Weekend protests, outside migrant hotels, also took place in Wolverhampton, Portsmouth, Norwich, Leeds, Nottinghamshire and Southampton.
“This is slowly gathering momentum,” Hughes adds.
“But the difference is, last summer the police were completely caught on the back foot. This time, they're more than prepared.”
