Since March 2025, protests against immigration have taken place in parts of the United Kingdom, some of which have led to violent disorder. At least 41 police officers have been injured and over 180 people have been arrested. Some have been focused around hotels being used by the government of the United Kingdom to provide accommodation for asylum seekers, while others are against immigration more broadly. Many were organised or attended by far-right groups including Reform UK, Britain First, UKIP, Homeland Party, and Patriotic Alternative, who have also been accused of spreading misinformation online.
With some protests also occurring in the first half of the year, the volume of hotel protests began to increase in the aftermath of a series starting in Epping on 13 July, which repeatedly ended in disorder. Protests occurred across the country, with disorder in cities including Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle; the largest protest came on 13 September when up to 150,000 people took part in a London march organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, where 26 police officers were injured.
These protests are part of a series which have previously led to riots, most notably in 2024 when over 1,800 people were arrested and over 300 police officers injured. Earlier in the year, a series of riots took place in Northern Ireland which saw over 100 police officers being injured.
Background
Use of hotels to house asylum seekers The government of the United Kingdom is legally obliged to provide accommodation for asylum seekers who would otherwise be homeless until their applications have been considered. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, hotels were only for temporary "contingency" use, with the government instead paying private contractors to rent apartments or houses. During the lockdowns, the eviction of asylum seekers whose cases had been decided on was paused to prevent them from becoming homeless and they were moved into empty hotels in order to comply with social distancing measures; this decision was described as a "temporary measure" by the Conservative government under Boris Johnson.
However, what began as a temporary measure has become a long-term arrangement, with many of these facilities effectively ceasing to operate as commercial hotels. Hotels were often closed to other guests at short notice, with reports of weddings and other events being cancelled. The buildings are no longer open to paying guests and instead function as institutional accommodation centres, typically housing hundreds of asylum seekers on long-term contracts with the Home Office. At the height of hotel use under the Conservative government, in June 2023, 51,000 asylum seekers were housed in more than 400 hotels across the UK, costing the Home Office a day. Recent actions to add bedspaces include maximising capacity by requiring asylum seekers to share hotel rooms, with limited access to cooking facilities. Many asylum seekers remain in these facilities for months or years whilst their claims are processed, far exceeding the original "temporary" designation. In the year to June 2025, a record 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK, with fewer than a third of applicants being housed in temporary hotel accommodation.
Living conditions in these facilities have been subject to extensive criticism from refugee advocacy groups and parliamentary committees, with reports describing substandard and overcrowded accommodation, malnutrition due to inadequate provisions, and rats all commonplace. Inspection reports have documented hotels with poor record keeping, inadequate security, and facilities lacking basic amenities such as cooking areas and outside space for children. Residents typically receive per week to cover all living costs outside of accommodation, significantly below the standard Universal Credit allowance, and are prohibited from working whilst their claims are pending. The concentration of large numbers of asylum seekers in these former hotels has led to tensions in some local communities, with local residents rarely being informed of the use of a hotel in advance, creating what has been described as a "damaging sense of community powerlessness".
Earlier anti-immigration protests In recent years, anti-immigration sentiment has grown in the United Kingdom. A report published by Runnymede Trust in 2025 proposed that this was encouraged by negative framing in the media and political discourse, with migrants consistently being portrayed in terms of crime and illegality during 2010 to 2014. The word 'illegal' was found to be one of the top five words associated with migrants in news reports and parliamentary debates in that time period, with the association becoming even stronger between 2019 to 2024. Experts and campaigners have suggested far-right groups have been using this to stoke tensions. This reached a peak most notably when in 2024 widespread riots led to over 1,800 arrests, with over 350 police officers being injured.
The spate of riots in 2024 followed a mass stabbing in which three children were killed and ten others injured. Soon after the attack, misinformation was spread online which incorrectly claimed that the attacker was an asylum seeker and a Muslim. These claims were spread by number of high-profile accounts on social media including Tommy Robinson, whilst a number of far-right activists called for nationwide protests. Along with pre-existing Islamophobic and racist attitudes, disorder spread across the country and led to attacks against Asian, Black and Muslim people as well as mosques, shops and community buildings such as libraries.
More recently, a series of riots in Northern Ireland in June 2025 led to over 50 arrests, with more than 100 police officers being injured. They were triggered by the alleged sexual assault of a girl in Ballymena by two teenagers who appeared in court with a Romanian interpreter; a month later, it was estimated that two-thirds of the Roma residents in the town had left.
Other more localised protests have occurred outside asylum hotels since 2021; however, they never spread nationwide. A few of these escalated into riots, including one in Knowsley on 10 February 2023 when a police van was set on fire and missiles were thrown at officers, leaving three of them injured.
Far-right mobilisation
The 2025 protests marked a significant escalation in far-right mobilisation around asylum accommodation, with established extremist groups seizing upon local concerns to advance broader anti-immigration agendas. While initial protests in locations such as Epping began with local residents, they were rapidly co-opted by organised far-right activists. The "Epping Says No" Facebook group, which organised demonstrations at the Bell Hotel, was administered by three members of the Homeland Party, a splinter group from the neo-Nazi organisation Patriotic Alternative.
Multiple far-right groups were documented as being present at the protests, including members of Britain First, the Homeland Party, Patriotic Alternative, and former UKIP activists. These groups were accused of spreading misinformation online to inflame tensions and recruit new supporters. The involvement of Reform UK provided a more mainstream political vehicle for anti-immigration sentiment, with the party's MPs such as Lee Anderson posting videos outside asylum hotels saying he was "absolutely furious" about their use for asylum seekers.
Some of the protests have been specifically organised by UKIP under their "Mass Deportations Tour", which has seen them march or rally in cities such as Glasgow, Nottingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, and London.
The protests have seen an increase in far-right efforts to use fears of violence against women to lend their views respectability. Multiple experts consulted by The Independent - including Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition; Lois Shearing, author of Pink Pilled; and a researcher for Hope not Hate - said that the far-right was are exploiting fears to make the far-right seem more "palatable", and that this is to appeal to a broader audience and gain more of a foothold in mainstream opinion. According to Simon, "these narratives are promoted by those who exploit genuine public concerns about sexual violence to intentionally fuel racism in our communities." Another development is the formation of organised women's groups attending the protests, such as The Pink Ladies and Women's Safety Initiative, who both reject the label far-right. The Hope not Hate researcher said of them; “with mobilisation comes recruitment”. On this Shearing said “a broader contingency of women” is being appealed to.
Role of misinformation
Social media platforms played a central role in coordinating and amplifying the 2025 asylum hotel protests. The protests were organised through Facebook groups with names following the pattern "X Community Says No to Y Local Hotel", alongside coordination via WhatsApp and Telegram. Telegram served as a key coordination hub for far-right networks, with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue documenting the platform's role as a "safe space for extremists to coordinate activity and instigate violence".
The role of Elon Musk and X in amplifying misinformation drew significant attention. Since Musk's takeover in 2022, X reinstated previously banned accounts including that of Tommy Robinson, who had been removed for hate speech violations. During the 2024 riots, Musk posted 46 times generating 808 million impressions, including a tweet claiming "civil war is inevitable" in the UK. Robinson's posts on X received over 580 million views in the two weeks following the Southport attack, an unprecedented reach for a previously banned figure.
A police inspectorate review published in May 2025 found that "misinformation and disinformation that had been posted online had been left up for too long and that helped fuel the disorder." The contemporaneous flag-raising campaign Operation Raise the Colours, coordinated by far-right activist Andrew Currien through social media platforms including Telegram and Facebook, was identified as connected to the broader network of anti-immigration activity.
Timeline of demonstrations
Sporadic protests earlier in the year
On 15 March, a rally was held in Portsmouth by British nationalist political party UKIP calling for mass-deportations of migrants. Party leader Nick Tenconi was in attendance. A counter protest was led by Stand Up To Racism Portsmouth, at which the Leader of Portsmouth City Council, Steve Pitt, spoke.
On 13 April, a group called 'Fighting Justice Against Predators' held a protest about a hotel used to house asylum seekers in Paisley. They were opposed by a counter-protest from Stand Up To Racism. According to The Herald, the organisation focuses on immigration, has ties to the far-right Patriotic Alternative, and have a history of spreading unfounded allegations on Facebook. Police Scotland stated that criminality had not been established upon investigation of related reports.
On 27 April, a protest against illegal immigration organised by motorcycle group 'Kent Motor Heads' was held in Dover. The bikers gathered in the town centre, where they were joined by more people on foot. The protesters carried Union Jack flags and signs with the phrase "Stop the boats". The group passed through the town and into the Market Square, where they were met by a group of counter-protesters including Stand Up To Racism and members of Medway Trades Union Council. Paul Golding, leader of neo-fascist party Britain First, was in attendance. Kent Police said the event passed without any reported incidents of disorder or arrests.