{"id":17119,"date":"2026-04-19T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17119\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T12:46:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:46:00","slug":"three-arrested-as-hundreds-of-britain-first-supporters-and-counter-protesters-demonstrate-in-manchester-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17119\/","title":{"rendered":"Three arrested as hundreds of Britain First supporters and counter-protesters demonstrate in Manchester"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of Britain First supporters and anti-racism counter-protesters demonstrated in Manchester <\/a>on Saturday, with three people arrested after scuffles with police.<\/p>\n

Britain First, a far-right political party led by Paul Golding, had organised the march to celebrate St George\u2019s Day, saying protesters needed to demonstrate against the \u201cextinction\u201d of Britain due to \u201cinvaders entering our country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Local leaders, such as the mayor of Greater Manchester and the head of Manchester city council, had called for unity ahead of the march.<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham said there was \u201cno place in Greater Manchester for any form of racism or hate\u201d, and Cllr Bev Craig urged people to celebrate \u201cthe fact that we have more in common than our differences\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Britain First supporters marched with Union Jack and England flags, starting at 1.15pm and travelling across central Manchester. A smaller number of counter-protesters tried to stand on the tram tracks before being moved to a designated spot by police and being surrounded in a protective ring. Police estimated there were around 1,000 protesters and counter-protesters at the demonstrations in total.<\/p>\n

\"Leader<\/p>\n

Leader of Britain First, Paul Golding (C) walks alongside people waving Union Jack and St George’s cross flags during a Britain First march (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Pepper spray was used after a number of counter-protesters attempted to break police lines and throw punches at officers, Greater Manchester Police said.<\/p>\n

The demonstration was mostly peaceful, with just three people arrested. Two of the arrests involved male counter-protesters. One was for failing to provide details after requesting that they remove their face covering, and the other was for police assault. The third person was a woman arrested on suspicion of breaching the peace. Police said it was unknown if she was part of either protest group<\/p>\n

\"Britain<\/p>\n

Britain First protesters march past counter-demonstrators (Greater Manchester Police)<\/p>\n

Hundreds of police officers were on duty across Manchester city centre, and dispersal orders were in place to manage the crowds. Assistant chief constable Rick Jackson thanked the officers on the ground, saying: \u201cHundreds of people from a range of groups were able to come together safely, with no significant issues reported.\u201d<\/p>\n

The police presence was stepped up after violence flared at Britain First\u2019s last march in February, with 11 arrests made at that event.<\/p>\n

Tram services were temporarily disrupted on Saturday due to the demonstration, but services resumed in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Britain First is a far-right group led by Paul Golding, a man with convictions for a terror offence <\/a>and a hate crime.<\/p>\n

\"Counter<\/p>\n

Counter protests hold signs and wave flags (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Britain First activists have been known to carry out \u201cChristian patrols\u201d and \u201cmosque invasions\u201d in which members stormed into Islamic places of worship. They have also targeted hotels temporarily housing asylum seekers and confronted staff and residents with cameras.<\/p>\n

Their marches have garnered significantly less support than Tommy Robinson\u2019s Unite the Kingdom march,<\/a> which attracted thousands of people to London for a \u201cfree speech festival\u201d last September.<\/p>\n

Responding to Britain First demonstrations, Manchester city council have launched a poster campaign against the group, sharing the message: \u201cManchester stands united against hate\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Britain First supporters and anti-racism counter-protesters demonstrated in Manchester on Saturday, with three people arrested after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,7578,62,1074,7845,7842,7843,7841,7579,7844],"class_list":{"0":"post-17119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-britain-first","10":"tag-greater-manchester-police","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-city","13":"tag-manchester-city-council","14":"tag-mayor-of-greater-manchester","15":"tag-paul-golding","16":"tag-police-officers","17":"tag-protesters"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116431446623198483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}