CAMPAIGNERS slammed the Tories today, blaming their “hateful rhetoric” against refugees for fuelling the violence seen outside a hotel in Knowsley housing asylum-seekers.

Fifteen people, aged between 13 and 54, were arrested on Friday night after a far-right rally descended into chaos outside the Suites Hotel. One 19-year-old has been charged with  assaulting an emergency worker.

Rioters hurled missiles and smashed a police van with sledgehammers before setting it alight. Mobs at the scene chanted “Get them out,” with signs saying “This is our city.”

A number of groups are believed to be involved in organising the rally, which was advertised on far-right Telegram chats.

The week prior, fascist group Patriotic Alternative distributed leaflets in the area calling Suites a “five-star hotel for migrants.”

Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said: “A number of individuals who turned up at the Suites Hotel were intent on using a planned protest to carry out violent and despicable behaviour. They turned up armed with hammers and fireworks to cause as much trouble as they could.”

Around 150 people, including pensioners, anti-fascist campaigners and faith groups, attended a peaceful counter-demonstration nearby.

According to Merseyside anti-fascist network, the “fascists were throwing fireworks and bangers at the hotel and trying to break through in order to set fire to it.”

Some far-right supporters reportedly tried to target the counter-protest from another route, using weapons to break through lines in order to reach them.

Martin Timson from Liverpool Stand Up to Racism said: “We strongly condemn this fascist-organised protest and the violence caused by them.

“The problems that face communities like Kirkby in terms of poverty, the cost-of-living crisis, and deprivation, are not the fault of migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees. It’s about kicking out this rotten Tory government and delivering social justice for all.”

Care4Calais founder Clare Moseley, who attended the counter-demo on Friday, described the scenes as “like a war zone. “They are terrorising some of the most vulnerable people in the world,” she said.

Asylum-seeker, Ahmed, said he had watched the protest from the window of the hotel.

“I was afraid. We came to the UK for safety,” he said.

The government is facing growing criticism over its language to describe people seeking safety in Britain.

Anti-racism group the Liberation Movement condemned “divisive rhetoric from government ministers, including Home Secretary Suella Braverman, which is responsible for stoking up hostility towards them by, among other things, describing their presence in the English Channel as ‘an invasion’.”

Freedom from Torture chief executive Sonya Sceats said: “These acts of hate are the inevitable culmination of a decade of anti-refugees policies and dog-whistles to the far right by this government in a cynical bid to turn people against each other for political gain.

“Now is the time for [Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak to put an immediate stop to the hateful rhetoric and policies emanating from his government.”

Knowsley’s Labour MP George Howarth said “an alleged incident posted on social media” had triggered the demonstration.

On Monday, footage emerged of a 25-year-old man approaching a 15-year-old schoolgirl. The man was arrested on Thursday before being released with no further action.

Mr Howarth said the people of Knowsley are “not bigots” and those “demonstrating against refugees” at the protest “do not represent this community.”

Ms Braverman faced further backlash on Saturday and was accused of victim blaming following her delayed response to the violence.

In a post on Twitter she said that the “alleged behavior of some asylum-seekers is never an excuse for violence and intimidation,” with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper saying she was “wrong to dismiss far-right threats for political reasons.”

Ms Braverman pledged “major reform” to the government’s counter-terrorism strategy last week after accepting the findings of a review into Prevent that downplayed the threat posed by the far right.

The scenes in Knowsley come just days after a far-right protest targeting a separate hotel accommodating asylum-seekers was held in the Scottish town of Erskine on February 5.

On Sunday, Tory minister Andrew Mitchell rejected claims that the government had helped stir up anti-refugee sentiment, telling the BBC that ministers have “helped thousands and thousands of Ukrainian refugees,” as well as people from Afghanistan and Hong Kong.

Condemning the scenes on Friday as “completely unacceptable,” Mr Mitchell added that the Home Office was working very hard to “stop the excessive use of hotels.”