“Safe, Fun and Sociable” (For Nazis): Britain First returns for a second March for Remigration

Despite previously describing rallies as “a shitshow” where followers “turn up pissed” and poor numbers in Nuneaton, Paul Golding re-emerged onto Britain’s streets last weekend for another “march for remigration”.

Having promised the largest event ever organised by Britain First, the rally attracted just 250 supporters to Birmingham New Street on Saturday 17 May. This latest failing follows a similarly small outing in Nuneaton back in March, despite spending £18,000 on the event.

Along with a stagnant turn out, attendees included a range of well-known far right figures, many notably more extreme than Britain First paints their audience to be. However, they were made to feel just as welcome, as Ashlea Simon was photographed with one attendee wearing ‘Heil Hitler’ merchandise.

Leading up to the Birmingham event, Golding promised a day where British “patriots” could “take back control of the city” of Birmingham at “the most ambitious, most well-organised event that Britain First has even attempted”.

Protestors gathered between Hill Street and Navigation Street, marching towards New Street Station and finishing in Victoria Square. Just three days before the rally, Birmingham City Council denied Britain First vehicle access to Victoria Square. Despite this clear ruling, Britain First violated it and assembled the same tired stage set up in Victoria Square to host their speeches.

What followed was a the usual set of hateful speeches we have come to expect from Britain First events. Unsurprisingly, the event fell well short of the party’s grand expectations.

Speeches

Golding’s speech promised a fight which would ‘carry on until this land has been restored’.  The reality is a march that carried on until a pub caught the attention of Goldings ‘patriots’. He also encouraged chants of ‘Oh Tommy, Tommy’ from the crowd in support of the imprisoned Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

As he began to shout to the audience, he warned them of a nation which would “perish and never return”. Ashlea Simon supported his dystopian depiction, telling crowds that “our cities run red with the blood of the English”. Fearmongering was the clear headline of the day, as Simon’s speech exploited the genuine issue of sexual assault to fuel her own racist agenda.

Speeches were also given by Joey Mannarino, a far-right American podcaster, and Sharon Workman, a Regional Organiser for Britain First. Pastor Greg Locke, a small-scale evangelical preacher, made a speech on-stage at the Nuneaton meet. However, he clearly decided the event wasn’t worth the flight costs a second time round, as he gave recorded video message at Birmingham instead. There were also video speeches from Jason Rapert, founder of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, and Robert Bakiewicz, a Polish far-right nationalist.

Attendees

A simple look into the crowd indicated that this day was not for young women who experience sexual violence, despite what Simon and Golding pretend. In reality, it was a platform for hate and those who support it.

One attendee who exposed who Britain First’s message appeals to best was Ryan Ferguson. He sported a shirt emblazoned with ‘88’, a shorthand reference for ‘Heil Hitler’, alongside a Polish phrase which translates to “Your hatred strengthens our faith”.  He was previously banned from football games for racially abusing a player and was sentenced for breaching the order on eight occasions.

This did not seem to worry Ashlea Simon or James Harvey, leader of Students Against Tyranny, who were seen chatting to him. Clearly for Harvey, the ‘tyranny’ he fights is restricted to queer students, rather than actual Nazis.

For Simon on the other hand, her “‘”safe, fun and sociable”’” environment is clearly welcoming for admirers of the Third Reich. Ferguson, alongside another individual sporting an ‘88’ shirt, made a good job of cracking the shiny shell of Britain First to expose the dark reality of the group and the company they are willing to keep.

Beside Ferguson, members of White Vanguard and Football Lads Protecting Britain attended the march. White Vanguard emerged from the Youth Alliance and thus shares similar marketing as an aggressively antisemitic and anti-Muslim group aimed at young men.

Both White Vanguard and the Youth Alliance depict themselves as a collection of young crusaders defending white Christians, meaning they fit in well as Golding and Simon were photographed holding white crosses on stage.

Other attendees include Lloyd Morgan, Matthew Darrington, Harry Jackson and Jason Withey. While Morgan stood in the 2025 local elections in Warwickshire for the National Housing Party UK, receiving a comical 33 votes, Darrington, Jackson and Withey all have strong links to the neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative. PA is one of the most active and aggressive far-right groups in the UK, composed of Holocaust deniers and young fascists, as well as several former members of National Action.

Thomas Simpson, otherwise known as Top Cat, is an aggressive fascist who has become a familiar face at Britain First marches as part of Golding’s thuggish security team; he has been photographed performing a Nazi salute and hosts livestreams which are littered with racist slurs and violent rhetoric against immigrants. Violent ‘security teams’ made up of individuals like Simpson have become regular sights at Britain First marches.

Ultimately, the Britain First rally ended up drawing the same tired faces as Nuneaton and was not the moment of mass action which Golding had hoped it would be. Britain First’s description of the march as “massively successful” was a severe overstatement.

Ashlea Simon’s promise of “three times the number of minibuses and activists” was demonstrably false, as even less gathered for Birmingham than they did for the Nuneaton event. It is difficult to agree with Ashlea Simon’s depiction of Britain First rallies as ‘safe, fun and sociable’ with so many genuine neo-Nazis littering the crowd.

Despite this, they have already announced their next rally on 2 August in Manchester.

Saturday was further proof that the party is stagnating and struggling to find a niche within Britain’s far right, squeezed between Tommy Robinson’s street movement and Reform UK’s electoral threat.