Stand Up to Racism held a counter protest
17:10, 27 Sep 2025Updated 17:10, 27 Sep 2025
(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Several hundred people attended a protest and counter protest in Wigan town centre today.
Billed by organisers as a peaceful protest that is ‘nothing to do with the far right’, the main protest came under the banner of the Great British National Protest.
Around 300 people gathered to attend this, including families with young children and elderly couples, many draped in the Union Jack and St George’s cross outside the Moon Under Water Wetherspoons in Wigan Town Centre at 1:30pm.
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Some bore signs and slogans like Protect Our Kids, Keep Wigan Safe and Get Liebour Out – Stop The Woke. There were chants of ‘stop the boats’, ‘send them back’ and ‘England ’til I die’.
(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Several gave speeches from megaphones to applause and cheers, which counter protestors from Stand Up To Racism and the Wigan trade union council tried to drown out with a sound system, playing John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance, the Beatles’ Let It Be and S Club 7’s Reach.
They chanted ‘say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here’ and bore signs saying ‘the NHS needs immigration’ and ‘billionaires have broken Britain’.
(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
There were occasional flares of hostility between the two sides. At one point, one of the counter protestors began dancing to the music, which appeared to aggravate some of the other side who shouted insults and made hand gestures at them.
But apart from this, the line of police separating the two groups were largely untroubled, with no violence or aggression apart from occasional jeers directed at the counter protestors.
By around 3pm the protest had dispersed peacefully and the square was soon quiet again.
The Manchester Evening News spoke to some of those attending the Great British National Protest. One woman said she was there for ‘free speech’.
“I don’t agree that people should be put in prison for things they say,” she said. “If you think of Lucy Connolly, she is not a danger to society.”
Lucy Connolly served 40% of her 31-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to incitement to racial hatred by publishing ‘threatening or abusive’ material in a tweet on the day of the Southport attack last July.
(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
“She could have been given a community order,” continued the woman, who declined to give her name.
“I’m not saying she should have got no punishment, but it could have been more reasonable.”
Another woman said she felt angry about the state of Wigan town centre.
“I’m born and raised in Wigan and we’ve worked all our lives to pay taxes,” she said, giving her age as 65.
“The town centre is a complete dump. The government are spending a lot of money on illegal immigration but it doesn’t seem to be going to the things people like me care about.
“I’m not far-right, I’m not a thug,” she finished. “I want them to spend money helping genuine people, but not just anybody.”
(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Nearby, one of the organisers of the counter-protest could be heard telling the group it had been a ‘ground-breaking day’.
“All the good people of Wigan have come out to support this demo, against racism, fascism and bigotry,” he said.
“Asylum seekers are not responsible for the problems they face – it’s easy to blame them. Today we have shown Wigan that we won’t stand for this.”