ANTI-RACIST activists came out in force at the weekend to oppose a series of far-right demos targeting asylum-seeker hotels. 

About 300 people, including trade unionists and anti-racism campaigners, turned up to defend the Beresford hotel in the seaside resort town of Newquay in Cornwall on Saturday.

Protesters waved banners saying “refugees welcome” and “seeking asylum is a right not a crime,” as a smaller gathering of about 100 racists held a demo on the other side of the road.

One held a sign reading: “You are anti-white racists.”

In Long Eaton near Nottingham, about 200 attended a counter-demonstration outside a Novotel hotel to oppose a small gathering of 60 anti-refugee protesters. 

A larger far-right demo and march also took place in Skegness, Lincolnshire, on Saturday, attended by about 200 people. 

The demo was organised by white nationalist group Patriotic Alternative, the most active fascist organisation in Britain according to anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate. 

They clutched a banner reading: “no more refugees,” as they chanted: “We want our country back.” 

Patriotic Alternative leaders Mark Collett and Laura Towler were among those who gave speeches at the rally.

Hope not Hate’s director of policy Rosie Carter said in a statement that far-right groups are stirring up tensions in local communities to further their own agendas. 

“Hope not Hate has seen a 102 per cent increase in far-right, anti-migrant activity in the last year,” she said. 

“This huge increase in far-right, anti-migrant activity doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

“It’s incumbent on the government to end their inflammatory use of language that feeds and enables the far right, put safeguards around hotels in place, and look again at their policies that have led to this dangerous situation in the first place.”

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has suggested that people attending the anti-refugee protests outside hotels are not racists, despite the influence of far-right groups. 

In an interview with GB News last week, she said that voicing “concerns or frustrations” about asylum-seekers being housed in local areas “does not make you racist or bigoted.”

It comes after 15 people were arrested when violence broke out at a far-right protest outside a hotel in Knowsley earlier this month.