Anti-migrant demonstrators faced off against anti-racism counter-protesters this evening outside a hotel on the south coast used to house asylum seekers.
Protesters gathered outside the Royal Beach Hotel in Southsea, Hampshire, on August 1, waving flags and calling for the hotel’s closure.
Anti-migrant demonstrations have taken place across the South of England today, in locations including Portsmouth, Southampton and Bournemouth.
All the protests are taking place at locations where the government are housing migrants while their asylum applications are processed.
In Southsea, counter-protesters from Stand Up to Racism Portsmouth staged an event at the same location, holding signs reading ‘Refugees welcome’.
The day of protests on the south coast follows similar recent unrest in Epping, where a series of demonstrations have taken place calling for the closure of The Bell Inn, a hotel used on and off for the last five years as accommodation for asylum seekers.
A ring of steel was also erected around The Britannia International Hotel, a luxury four-star lodging in London’s Canary Wharf that has been converted to house migrants, following sweeping protests.
An Epping-style protest to stop migrants being housed above a town’s shops took to the streets on Wednesday in Waterlooville, Hampshire – as thousands of locals warned of ‘mayhem’ if the plans go ahead.
The Southsea protests follow on from two previous similar demonstrations last month.
The event on July 26 was peaceful, with officers able to remain between the two sets of protesters and no incidents reported to police.
A spokesperson for Hampshire Police said: ‘The protest was peaceful and passed without any incidents reported to police during the event.
‘Our priority with protests is always public safety.
‘Policing these events requires us to balance the rights of those lawfully protesting, and the rights of others to go about their lives without being subject to unacceptable disruption, whilst keeping the public safe.’
However, an earlier event saw a 64-year-old man arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and another man, 40, arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order, Portsmouth News reported.
Hampshire Police were also forced to put a dispersal order in place to stop the protest spiralling into violence.
Opened 1866 and billed as a ‘visitor paradise’, the Royal Beach Hotel is a historic Victorian lodging with views across the Solent.
In April 2022 Portsmouth News reported that the hotel would be exclusively used to house migrants until at least August of that year.
Now three years on tensions are spilling over as local residents protest its continued use as asylum accommodation.
The hotel was targeted by far-right Britain First activists in 2022.
Members of the group, which was founded by a former British National Party politician, filmed at the hotel as part of what they dubbed an ‘expose’.
Speaking at the time, Lib Dem councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson called on Southsea’s residents to welcome those who in need of the hotel’s services.
However, plans are already in place to curtial the venue’s use as a hotel for asylum seekers.
The exterior of the hotel is covered in scaffolding as construction continues to turn the property into housing, with planning permission already granted by Portsmouth City Council.