{"id":1030763,"date":"2026-06-16T19:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1030763\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T19:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:02:14","slug":"far-right-to-march-in-birmingham-as-anti-racist-groups-unite-to-say-not-welcome-in-our-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1030763\/","title":{"rendered":"Far right to march in Birmingham as anti-racist groups unite to say ‘not welcome in our city’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anti-fascist and anti-racist people and groups are uniting in Birmingham<\/a> on Saturday to seek to counter a planned Far Right rally led by Britain First amid rising national tensions.<\/p>\n

West Midlands Police<\/a> is planning a major operation to keep the peace, with hundreds – and potentially thousands – of people on both sides expected in the city centre.<\/p>\n

Britain First, the political group set up by former members of the BNP (British National Party) and led by Paul Golding, claimed it would attract ‘thousands’ to their rally under the banner ‘March for Remigration’.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Education Secretary breaks silence on Prime Minister leadership challenge during Birmingham visit<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

It is seeking to capitalise on anger over the recent high-profile killing of Henry Nowak and the Belfast knife attack to drive home its message against migrants and to call for mass deportations.<\/p>\n

But unions and anti-racist organisations in the city say they intend to show their views are not welcome in Birmingham, a super-diverse city with a proud history as a city of sanctuary.<\/p>\n

The event coincides with World Refugee Day.<\/p>\n

A broad coalition of groups intends to ensure anyone attending the Britain First rally is met with ‘resistance’.<\/p>\n

“Across Britain, an anti-migrant and anti-Muslim movement is becoming more visible and more violent…but the values of solidarity, tolerance and unity that have made Birmingham one of Britain’s most diverse and resilient cities are worth defending,” the coalition said.<\/p>\n

“Our city is proudly diverse, built by working class people, black, white, brown, local people and migrants from all over the world.<\/p>\n

“The real causes of hardship – low pay, crumbling public services, unaffordable housing, high energy bills – come from a broken system.<\/p>\n

“The far right does not speak for this city. Fascists are not welcome here.”<\/p>\n

Last year Britain First was allowed to march from New Street station, monitored by police, to Victoria Square<\/a>, directly outside the Council House, apparently with the complicity of staff despite local politicians claiming they would not be allowed to protest there.<\/p>\n

Far right speakers including Golding were able to broadcast their views. That triggered a furious row and an internal investigation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, anti-racist protestors were ‘kettled’ by police and kept in one place, to their frustration.<\/p>\n

The anti-racist coalition includes Birmingham Trades Union Congress, Birmingham Friends of the Earth, West Midlands Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Birmingham Unison, Birmingham NEU, Birmingham Race Impact Group, Brummies United Against Racism and Hate Crime, and Birmingham Green Party.<\/p>\n

Community representatives have met West Midlands Police to confirm the counter-protest will take place in Victoria Square, while the Britain First march will begin in another part of the city centre and follow a pre-arranged route.<\/p>\n

Such rallies are permitted under freedom of peaceful assembly rules enshrined in the Human Rights Act 1998, which ensures citizens can gather and express views, even if those views are widely considered offensive or racist, provided the gathering remains peaceful.<\/p>\n

They are heavily regulated to ‘maintain public safety and prevent hate crimes’ and must be notified in advance, follow strict conditions relating to duration, location and route, and can only be banned if a police chief constable applies to the Home Office to prevent it.<\/p>\n

Police have powers to arrest anyone who incites racial hatred or violence, uses racist language, or displays offensive materials.<\/p>\n

Who are Britain First?<\/b><\/p>\n

Set up in the wake of the collapse of the BNP, the movement is avowedly anti-migrant.<\/p>\n

Its policies include deporting any and all current and former asylum seekers who have reached Britain through any ‘safe’ nations; deporting anyone born abroad who has been in prison for any crime, including retrospectively; halting family reunions; and assisting financially to repatriate any immigrants who want to return to their country of origin.<\/p>\n

It is also anti-LGBT, opposes vaccinations, would ban the Human Rights Act and wants to reintroduce compulsory Christian assembly and teaching in every school as part of a clampdown on multi-faith ‘tolerance’ and diversity.<\/p>\n

Golding, its leader, has a previous conviction for religiously-aggravated harassment. His former co-leader, Ashlea Simon declared \u201cEnglish people can\u2019t be black. English blood is white\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anti-fascist and anti-racist people and groups are uniting in Birmingham on Saturday to seek to counter a planned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1030764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7820],"tags":[284531,855,748,226719,141132,393,4884,284530,16,15,7830],"class_list":["post-1030763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-birmingham","tag-anti-racist","tag-birmingham","tag-britain","tag-britain-first","tag-british-national-party","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-paul-golding","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-west-midlands-police"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116761339390831618","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}