Members of a far-right nationalist party are helping to organise protests outside hotels used to house asylum seekers across the UK, according to a series of Facebook posts and groups created in recent weeks.
Activists for the Homeland party, which was formed as a splinter organisation from Patriotic Alternative, Britain’s biggest far-right group, have set up a number of online groups in an attempt to spread the protests that recently engulfed a hotel in Epping.
Their involvement adds to concerns raised by some campaigners that the protests are being infiltrated and bolstered by people with far-right connections. Protests are expected to take place over the weekend in 20 towns and cities across the UK.
The Facebook groups show that Homeland has been active in various spots around the country, including Epping, Wethersfield, Peterborough and Nuneaton.
One group, Nuneaton Says No, is run by five people: Tom King, Jennifer Jardine, Matt Alexander, Adam Clegg and Andrew Piper.
It has been advertising a protest on Saturday under various labels, including “Stop the Boats” and “Women Wear Pink” – a reference to the “Pink Ladies” protests outside the Bell hotel in Epping. In the comments section, one member posted: “Should’ve maybe done this on a Friday. You know. When the Council are actually in their offices, as opposed to when it’s just an empty building.”
Clegg and Piper were recently named in the Times as members of Homeland and have been pictured holding the party’s campaign material. Both were also involved in trying to organise the Epping protests.
King’s profile photo resembles that of Tom Huburn-King, Homeland’s West Midlands regional organiser. Jardine’s profile picture shows her posing in front of a Homeland party sign. Alexander’s Facebook photos show him having recently visited the Eagle’s Nest in Germany, built by the Nazis close to Adolf Hitler’s alpine holiday home.
Another group, Wetherfield Says No, is run in part by Callum Barker, another person named recently by the Times as being a Homeland activist. Barker was one of three people to run the Epping Says No group along with Clegg and Piper.
Barker and Piper both recently posted Facebook messages saying: “If you live in an area that has a hotel occupied by asylum seekers, start organising. Gather family, friends, locals and protest; make your voices heard. We are united in this struggle and in the end we will win.”
A smaller group has been set up to organise protests around a hotel in Peterborough, the profile of which prominently shows Homeland-branded signs.
The Guardian has attempted to contact all of the named individuals and the Homeland party but has not received a response.
The attempts by far-right campaigners to organise protests outside migrant hotels have amplified concerns about extremists seeking to use the current controversy in Epping to stir up wider racial conflict.
When Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, recently attended the Epping protest, he was pictured close to Eddy Butler, a former British National party strategist and a well-known figure in far-right circles.
The anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate said on Friday that the recent spate of union and St George’s flags appearing on lamp-posts had been organised in part by a longtime ally of Tommy Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon).
Ministers are braced for a wave of protests across the weekend following a ruling by the high court stopping asylum seekers being placed at the Bell hotel. The hotel became the focus of anti-migrant protests after an asylum seeker living there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
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The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on Friday that ministers were working to close hotels housing asylum seekers “as swiftly as possible” as part of an “orderly” programme that avoids creating problems for other areas.
“That is the reason for the Home Office appeal in this case, to ensure that, going forward, the closure of all hotels can be done in a properly managed way right across the country – without creating problems for other areas and local councils,” she said.
The security minister, Dan Jarvis, said: “This government will close all asylum hotels and we will clear up the mess that we inherited from the previous government.”
He added: “We’ve made a commitment that we will close all of the asylum hotels by the end of this parliament, but we need to do that in a managed and ordered way. And that’s why we’ll appeal this decision.”
On Friday night Nigel Farage said Reform would carry out “mass deportation” of small boat arrivals.
In an interview with the Times, he said the plans could see hundreds of thousands of people deported, with five charter flights leaving the UK every day.
The Clacton MP said: “The aim of this legislation is mass deportations. We have a massive crisis in Britain. It is not only posing a national security threat but it’s leading to public anger that frankly is not very far away from disorder.
“There is only one way to stop people coming into Britain and that is to detain them and deport them.”