Following a series of protests in Epping, where a woman and a girl were sexually assaulted by an asylum seeker, other towns across the UK began forming anti-migrant groups. The grassroots nature of 2025’s summer protests produced an enormous uptick of local mobilisation, resulting in an abundance of small scale groups of various extremity and capability. 

Some were made up of local people with no connection to the broader far right ecosystem, others were led by seasoned activists including ex-EDL and Homeland Party members. Many of them platformed well-known far-right activists, who took advantage of captive audiences of concerned locals to further an anti-migrant agenda. 

Aberdeen Against Illegal Migration

Aberdeen Against Illegal Migration (AAIM) is one of the more extreme locally-focused anti-migrant groups. Early AAIM events platformed John Carr, a member of the fascist Homeland Party. Carr’s speeches were extreme, promoting the Great Replacement theory and encouraging attendees to chant “White Lives Matter”. In response to being called a Nazi, he argued that “Nazi is just a word for white person that is correct” and referred to Glaswegian schools and being “overtaken by brutal and hateful third worlders”.

After Carr disappeared from the scene, the group continued hosting anti-migrant protests across the summer. The core members during this period included Geoffrey Farquharson, who in 2016 sent a death threat including Islamophobic and homophobic abuse to MP Ben Bradshaw; John Hall, an Aberdeen local who organised the vast majority of events and, Josh Fernie, another Homeland Party member. Fernie has promoted remigration and the Great Replacement theory, as well as arguing that a black person cannot be Scottish. Steve Rennie, who described the transgender rights movement as a “barbarian, billionaire backed horror show”, also attended multiple AAIM events, but soon splintered off and formed Peterhead United, another Scottish anti-migrant group. Gavin Turpie of the British Democrats has also been spotted at events donning the group’s branded t-shirts, and at others sporting the gear of the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver.

The group faced heavy criticism when it began to protest outside a primary school in Seaton, Aberdeen during school hours. This was after a community centre, which shares a building with the primary school, gave English lessons to asylum seekers. Many locals condemned the team for endangering children, or pointed out the hypocrisy in wanting asylum seekers to assimilate into British life, but protesting classes teaching them to speak English. 

Bournemouth Patriots

In Bournemouth, protests were smaller but frequent. The Bournemouth Patriots is mainly led by Darren Webb, a long-standing conspiracist and far-right activist with a history of running anti-migrant Facebook groups. 

The group has hosted Nick Tenconi, who said in a speech that “every lefty is a socialist or a communist at heart” and subsequently that communism was “a spiritual weapon of the devil designed to enslave souls, destroy the church, and erase God from the hearts of men”. 

East Belfast Nightwatch First Division

The East Belfast Nightwatch First Division (EBFD) is a Northern Irish anti-migrant vigilante group. The Guardian reported that the group was “seeking out dark-skinned males” to question them about identity documents and their reasons for being in East Belfast. Multiple members have violent criminal pasts. 

The majority of EBFD content is shot by Neil Pinkerton, a leading member of the group. In one clip, he harassed a man sat on a park bench, forcing him to leave: “Hurry up, before I fucking remove you myself”. The group’s actions have resulted in multiple social media bans, stripping it of almost any online presence. 

Pinkerton boasts of an extreme history of animal abuse. In a 2018 photo, he held a dead fox in one hand and his dog, Judy, in the other. Judy had been forced into a fox hole and mauled so badly that her muzzle was skinned. In 2022 Pinkerton had 12 dogs seized from his home, where he had kept them in cages for hunting purposes. He was also given a suspended sentence under the Dangerous Dog Act in 2024, after a dog in his care attacked an 11-year-old boy. 

Pinkerton recently appeared in court in relation to assault and theft charges linked to his activity as part of the vigilante group. He has since been released on bail on charges of assault, disorderly behaviour, harassment, attempted criminal damage and incitement to hatred, having also been accused of racially abusing a delivery driver. 

Other key figures include Mark Payne, who was convicted for attempted murder after stabbing a 14-year-old boy. He was also charged with the intimidation of two female witnesses, who reported him waving a knife at them, as well as stealing a kitchen knife and possessing an offensive deadly weapon in a public place in connection with a burglary.

Another member is Mark Sinclair, an ex-UVF bank robber who was jailed for 17 years. In court, he claimed to have been recruited by MI5 to spy on loyalist paramilitaries, which was later determined to be a lie. More recently, he racially abused a Chinese passenger on a ferry to Liverpool to attend Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally this September. 

Sinclair is a staunch defender of Glen Kane, a convicted sectarian murderer who was jailed for nine years for being part of a gang who beat a Catholic man to death in 1992. Sinclair recently interviewed Kane outside a courthouse where Kane was charged with intent to stir up racial hatred, after a selection of far-right material and religious pamphlets were found at his home. 

Epping says NO

Epping says NO is an informal organisation which campaigns against the use of the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex to house asylum seekers. The campaign was formed during protests which sprouted in Epping after an asylum seeker sexually assaulted a local girl and young woman. Subsequently, the group’s Facebook page has acted as a forum for local debate and a place to organise protests in the area. 

During the height of anti-migrant protests in Epping, the movement was led by current Pink Ladies members Orla Minihane and Sarah White, as well as ex-Homeland Party member Callum Barker. Other figures associated with the campaign include Julian Leppert and Eddy Butler, both longstanding far-right activists, most notably with the BNP.

While the group has lost some of the momentum it had during the summer, its core members remain active as part of The Pink Ladies.

National Emergency Faversham Division

National Emergency Faversham Division (NEFD) is a Kent based anti-migrant group run by Harry Hilden, with additional support from Jodie Scott (AKA Missus Kent). Despite requesting background checks on the residents of a local former care home being used to house children seeking asylum, Hilden himself was previously given a six month prison sentence over a connection to gang related violence. 

The group hosted a series of anti-migrant protests in Faversham, which attracted Britain First leader Paul Golding and British Movement member Mike Gott. 

NEFD also doubled as a flagging campaign, closely tied to Operation Raise the Colours. Throughout Faversham, the group lined streets with Union flags and St George’s crosses, despite major pushback from local residents. On several occasions, footage appeared online showing disputes between locals and Hilden’s team: in one clip, a “patriot” threatens to headbutt a man who is attempting to remove a flag from outside his house. He threatens: “I don’t want to catch anyone else trying to take them down… Do it and find out”. 

As a response to local pushback against the flagging campaign, Hilden organised “watch duties” for his team to prevent anybody from removing them. His social media is littered with videos of locals attempting to stop his team from putting flags up, and members of his group respond with the same vague threats: “I dare you to touch that flag… see what happens”. 

Recently, Hilden was arrested and charged with assault during a confrontation between him and another man, who was charged with possession of a bladed article. He was also charged with abusive behaviour towards a police officer in connection to the same incident. 

Portsmouth Patriots

The Portsmouth Patriots, identifiable by their royal blue t-shirts, hosted a series of protests on the sea front outside the Royal Beach Hotel. The group also doubled as a flagging movement, hanging flags around the town as part of Operation Raise the Colours. Leading members include Barry Burr, who attended English Defence League rallies as early as 2013. He, like other members of the group, also attended Tommy Robinson demos in 2024 and 2025, as well as UKIP’s Portsmouth demo last March. 

Clearly impressed with UKIP’s aggressive anti-migrant agenda, the group invited leader Nick Tenconi to speak at their summer protests. He gave a speech in which he referred to asylum seekers as “savages” and promised that UKIP would begin “mass deportations”. Despite this, protesters cheered and posed for photos with him. On 26 September, one protester performed a Nazi salute, prompting a barrage of negative attention online and a subsequent apology from the Portsmouth Patriots. 

Southampton Patriots

The Southampton Patriots launched protests outside the Highfield House Hotel. 

In keeping with the South Coast trend, the group invited Nick Tenconi to speak on multiple occasions. During a speech at an August protest, Tenconi declared he wanted to deport “communists” to North Korea. At the same protest, attendees chanted ‘Christ is King’ as pastor Chris Wickland made a speech in which he said “British identity has come from 700 years of Christianity” and argued that atheists needed to come to Christianity as part of a “numbers game” in order to save Britain. 

At another events, protesters chanted “Say it loud, say it clear, illegals are raping here” and held signs reading “Only traitors help invaders”. In early October, one protester was spotted wearing a highly offensive costume of traditional Orthodox Jewish clothing.

The Southampton Patriots also hosted the largest protest seen across the south coast this year, with the event on 26 October of roughly 600 people. Nick Tenconi returned, with a speech which declared that “this is the ninth crusade”, and a scuffle broke out after somebody threw a bottle of urine off a bridge into marching protesters.