THE RISE OF THE FAR-RIGHT:
Following the shift from fringe groups to the mainstream and those who oppose it (2023-2025).
2023 felt like the beginning of something. It seemed as if every week there was some faction of the right wing marching upon the streets. It was the year that figures like Nick Tenconi really gained traction as the agitators behind street movements. The idea of counter-demonstrations re-emerged as the sole tactic of the left and many weekends were spent divided by police lines, hurling insults at eachother and occasionally getting into small skirmishes. In all honesty, it felt amateurish from both sides and it was far too easy for the left to dismiss the organising of the right as something largely unconcerning. There are few people who would of believed back then that they were opposing future politicians and political party leaders. After witnessing the governments rolling back of the right to protest with the draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill in 2021 and the racist marches that swept the UK in 2020 as a response to Black Lives Matter (BLM), I wasn’t much shocked by what we were witnessing unfold.
2023
Turning point UK found their feet organising against a monthly children’s story time ran by Drag Queens, regular attendees of their demonstrations included Calvin Robinson, Nick Tenconi and Tony Martin (leader of the National Front). Each time they would materialise, so would counter demonstrators to defend the pub. Eventually, the counter to the event managed to smash the pub windows.
Honour Oak: Drag Queen story hour
Terfs: Posie Parker Comes to London
Monthly face-offs between Posie Parker supporters and Trans Liberation organisations in Hyde Park also became a regular occurrence.
March for Life: an annual affair
The March for Life is an annual conference and street “festival” organised by anti-abortion organisations and opposed by several Feminist organisations from Sex Worker Unions to Trans Liberation Campaigns. They were protected by private security firms alongside the police. Nick Tenconi was present as an individual.
Free Carla Foster: Opposed by preachers
A woman was imprisoned for having an abortion which sparked a short ripple feminist demonstrations, however most were incredibly small and only really opposed by lone preachers or christian fundamentalists.
In late 2023, I travelled across Europe in a van. In the few months spent overseas, I encountered many far-right demonstrations without any prior planning or intention. As I sat in Krakow old town square in Poland, I noticed crowds gathering in the far corner and Police forming a line of separation. Upon approaching, I was Informed it was an anti-immigration demonstration organised by neo-nazi groups including All-Polish youth and oppossed by a small crowd of anti-racist & queer activists.
At the Green Border: All Polish Youth
This day felt like one of the biggest shifts in far-right intention, tactics and cohesion we had seen in a very long time. A national Palestine demonstration swept through central London and as it did, Several pockets of far-right agitators tried to ambush from side streets. Groups of them were kettled into pubs near Vauxhall and Victoria by Riot Police and Mounted units. Others were stopped in the streets and detained for carrying weapons. It was a step up in their organising. We do not know what their exact intention was as they were stopped pre-emptively but we can assume that they had planned and anticipated mass violence.
Remembrance Day: Palestine vs Patriots
The first half of 2024 felt like a lull, the calm before the storm. There were fewer demos and even fewer counter demos. It felt as if that slow burning momentum of the far-right had fizzled away. How awfully wrong that assumption would have been. In the later months of 2024, after the southport stabbings, the far-right began to mobilise in a way we have not seen in the Uk for at least a decade. They ended up organising pogroms on such a scale that we have not seen since the 80s and 90s. In my whole living memory there has been a growing hatred against refugees and asylum seekers which coincided with the general sentiment of racism that exists. Though, for the first time in my lifetime, Nazism and ideas of extreme ethno-nationalism became normalised, mainstream and unchallenged. Extremists views became no longer just the politics of fringe movements. Though also abominable, the idea of civic nationalism seemed to have perished in the flames lit at migrant hotels and in ethnically diverse areas. The initial wave of riots unearthed a beast and set a precedent for what the future of black, brown and muslim lives would look like. (Each Riot occuring in the North East has its own section which you can locate under “Projects”.)
2024
So far, this year has been one of relentless demonstrations and counter-demonstrations. Movements have birthed, movements have disbanded. Most weekends there are several far-right demonstrations taking place outside of numerous asylum hotels and when they are not outside of hotels, they are outside of government offices and when they aren’t there, they’re attacking local shops and homes. This year, racist violence has became so common and normalised that it has been impossible for the left and communities to mobilise against individual cases. This is not the institutional racism so extensively talked about in post-BLM eras, this is a return to intolerance and extreme violence. Hate crimes have surged and politics has shifted. Nick Tenconi was a largely ignored street agitator when I first began following him, now he is the sieg-heiling leader of Political party UKIP and though UKIP have became largely irrelevant, it cannot be ruled out that one day he may sit in parliament.
2025
Though turning up to migrant hotels has long been a focus of the far right, this has come to peak in 2025 after chaos unfolded in Epping. Residents and non-residents of Epping took to the Bell Hotel bi-weekly to protest the housing of migrants. Each week disorder of some kind occurred. What began with the smashing of Police vans, ended with an elderly and lone counter demonstrator having her head punched while being called a “slag” and a”traitor”. While present at Epping I witnessed a Union Jack clad man break into a school, ironically chanting “save the children”. After Epping, I was called to document anti-migrant hotel demonstrations in several other locations, including but not limited to Crawley, Orpington, Canary Wharf, Islington and Newcastle. Though, in terms of what was unfolding nationwide, this does not even begin to scratch the surface. For me, the summer of ‘25 was the time that the link between migrant and women's rights really became apparent. For more on the summer of ‘25 and video footage, click here or find under ‘projects’.
Raise the flag: the sister movement of mobbing migrants at hotels
This was considered the biggest far-right and fascist mobilisation in British History. Hundreds of thousands of Tommy Robinson supporters flooded the streets of London. While it is disputed still wether many of those attendees truly have fascist beliefs, it is undisputable that many of the official speakers of the event do. Speakers included Petr Bystron, a german AFD politician who was fined twice for using Nazi slogans. It was eventually ruled in a german court that AFD members can be referred to as fascists. There was also Phillip Dewinter, a Belgian MP who attended an event for former SS members. He later posed alongside fascist interwar period flags and captioned his social media posts with Nazi mottos. Domonik Tarczynski also spoke, a Polish MEP known for his proximity and offering of legal support to nazi organisation such as All-polish youth. He is also known for Holocaust denialism and calling for leading holocaust scholars to be criminally prosecuted for educating people on Polands complicity during the Holocaust. Disgraced and Struck-off from LBC after using the Nazi term “final solution”, Katie Hopkins also took to the stage. Ant Middleton, mayoral candidate who was axed from channel 4 due to his “personal conduct” and claimed killing people is the “closest thing to feeling like god” also garnered a large crowd. Ex chief strategist to the White house under Trumps rule, Steve Bannon and the Dutch far-right political commentator, Eva Vlardingerbroek also made appearances. Addressing the crowd via video link, Elon Musk made a surprise appearance after it was revealed that he was a large funder of the demonstration. The mastermind behind and face of the whole day was none other than Steven Yaxley-Lennon, more commonly known as Tommy Robinson and less commonly known by his other associated names Andrew McMaster, Paul Harris and Wayne King. It marked his real return to organising and movements after his brief fleeing of the UK and then subsequent prison time. He was jailed after breaching and injunction placed on him for creating and spreading lies about a Syrian Child under the guise of “protecting children”. He also had a five year stalking protection order placed on him after he repeatedly harassed a woman and her husband with unfounded allegations. His string of convictions track all the way back to 2005, with a number of his convictions being for violence.
