Monthly Briefing: Racist protests stoked in Epsom by influncers and right wing press

In Brief

• Far right influencers and the right wing press stoked racist riots in Epsom after a report that a woman had been raped leaving a nightclub, which proved to be false.
• Britain First held another demonstration in Manchester calling for remigration. Unlike in February, police used heavy tactics to facilitate the far right march.
• Patriotic Alternative again attended the conspiracy discussion group Keep Talking.
• Racist MAGA influncer Valentina Gomez has been barred from entering the UK on the order of the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ahead of a second Unite The Kingdom rally.
• Neo-nazi group White Vanguard held a grooming gangs protest outside the Pakistan High Commission in London.

Epsom

The town of Epsom in Surrey has seen two weeks of racist anti-migrant protests following a report that a woman had been raped after leaving a nightclub, an incident which was later deemed to have not happened following a police investigation. 

On 12 April police issued an appeal for witnesses to the incident. Details about the alleged attackers were vague as police said they didn’t have “sufficient details to give a description”. On 15 April around 300 protesters, made up of locals and some who travelled into the town, gathered in the town centre to demand details of the alleged attackers. Tensions were stoked by both the mainstream press and by online actors - large anonymous X accounts and far right agitators like Steven Yaxley-Lennon and his ally Daniel Thomas. During the protest there were reports of criminal damage and objects thrown at police. In the aftermath police attempted to quell local concerns by meeting with local protest organisers and releasing a statement that there was no evidence asylum seekers were involved in the alleged attack. On 20 April a further protest took place in which objects were again thrown at police, local businesses were threatened, hospitality workers racially abused and hotels which were not being used as asylum accommodation were targeted. On 23 April police stated that the rape had not occured, the woman at the centre of the investigation had made a “confused report” after accidentally hitting her head. 

How were the Epsom riots instigated? Some, like the BBC’s disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring, have solely focussed on online misinformation, independent social media creators and far right agitators. In fact, the story of a police coverup and the brave angry locals demanding the truth was taken up by large swathes of the mainstream press: right wing outlets like the Telegraph, Mail and GB News, but also the BBC, who in headlines failed to note that the report was merely an allegation. Despite the lack of confirmation of the rape even occuring, stories insinuated the reasons details were not released were because the attackers were asylum seekers. This gave space to far right agitators, including large anonymous racist accounts on X and far-right activists like Steven Yaxley-Lennon and Daniel Thomas, to claim there was in fact a police coverup. In one news article, GB News directly quoted Thomas as he shouted at police lines during the 20 April riot.

The mainstream right wing press’s turn towards the far right can be seen purely in terms of profit - such stories garner heavy attention and generate plenty of page views and ad clicks. However it also reflects the ongoing breakdown between the establishment right, far right and ideologically fascist movements. As the right-voting electorate are dragged towards influencers like Yaxley-Lennon and new political parties like Reform UK and Restore Britain,  institutions like the Telegraph are forced to capitulate and entertain ever more extreme positions. 

Britain First

Britain First (BF’) held another “March for Remigration”, again in Manchester, on 18 April. The fascist party had announced it would be coming back to Manchester after a February march through the city was marred by clashes with antifascists, who at points blockaded the far right demo. Again antifascists outnumbered the BF demo. However, unlike in February, significant police resources and violence were used to facilitate BF’s procession through Manchester. Police from multiple forces were utilised, with the Northern Police Monitoring Project stating that “officers behaved thuggishly” and “punched, kicked and violently attempted to remove masks from counter protestors”, as well as using PavA spray on counter protestors. 3 people were arrested. Like previous BF demos, a large number of so-called “auditors” were present at the demo. These included Lee Sheres, who runs the page “antifa public watch” and Billy Moore, a Liverpudlian Youtuber who recently visited France to film migrants attempting to cross the channel. 

Paul Golding, the leader of Britain First, was filmed swearing at women demonstrators who were subsequently ejected from the rally with the help of his security detail. Golding was also filmed ejecting Harry Jackson, a young “auditor” who has displayed fascist flags on previous demonstrations and is a close collaborator of Ryan Ferguson, who has become well known for throwing up Hitler salutes on demonstrations across the country. Jackson released a video where he attacked Golding for beating up his previous partner, Jayda Fransen, who was previously a leader of Britain First. Jackson also attacked Golding for marching to the cenotaph when he was a member of the National Front with a pair of women’s knickers on his head. Also in the background of this photo is Mark Collett, who leads Patriotic Alternative (PA). Jackson shared a platform with Collett at a demonstration in Nuneaton in March. This raises questions about Golding’s flirting with “ethno-nationalism”, especially using the word “remigration”, a term popularised by Generation Identity and a term used by other “ethno-nationalist” parts of the far right (Patriotic Alternative and the Homeland Party) whilst claiming that Nazis will be “removed” from BF events. BF have announced another “March for Remigration in Birmingham on the 20th of June and a “Paul Golding speaking tour” which will visit various parts of England. No date has been announced for this.

Patriotic Alternative

London and South East Patriotic Alternative members attended a Keep Talking meeting in Vauxhall as part of their regular schedule of socials. Keep Talking, which PA has attended before, is a discussion group which promotes conspiracy theories such as the faking of September 11 and the 7/7 attacks in London, holocaust revisionism and, more recently, anti-vaccine conspiracies. They operate in a nexus in which conspiracy theorists from the left and right can meet and find common ground. PA noted that the April meeting debated the royal family and British sovereignty with ‘the well-informed clientele of the Tea Rooms in Vauxhall including Piers Corbyn and Nick Kollerstrom’. Its importance for the PA activists who attended is highlighted by their statement that, ‘The culture war is one battle that nationalists must win. Our no holds barred takes were well received by those present’. 

PA’s online activity in April was bracketed by Sam Melia. At the start of the month PA publicised Melia’s appearance on the PA aligned ‘Mood of the Nation’ podcast to promote his book, Legal, Truthful, Guilty, while on 26 April Collett streamed a ‘book review’ which served as an extended advertisement. Whether these and other plugs for his book have an appreciable impact on sales of the title is as yet unclear, the book is self published and distributed through Laura Melia’s white nationalist tea company.

Long term observers of the far-right will recall Jonathan Bowden, who moved from the Tory Party and Monday Club through a number of bodies to the BNP and Tory Southgate’s New Right Committee. Bowden died in 2012 but he’s clearly not forgotten as PA shared two apparently unpublished videos of his outlining the significance of British art over the past 500 years.

PA were fairly quiet in April after their public meetings in Warwick and Nuneaton earlier in the year. However, local activity has continued, with events including an Easter hike in Gloucestershire, homeless outreach in Sutton Coldfield, fitness sessions in their Eastern Region, meals – and outings to Lincoln Cathedral and the Ryedale Folk Museum. St George’s Day, 23 April, was marked by PA activists on the weekend of 18/19 April flying flags and dropping a banner in Wiltshire. A late report from PA South East told how in March activists visited a plot in the south-east owned by the Woodlander Initiative to work on the project and hold a camp. The Woodlander Initiative was founded by PA’s Simon Birkett and aims to buy land in every county in the UK for the use of white nationalists.

Tommy Robinson

Racist MAGA influencer Valentina Gomez has been barred from the UK by the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on the grounds that her presence “would not be conducive to the public good.” Before having her authorisation rescinded, Gomez had been granted a visa to attend Steven Yaxley-Lennon’s Unite the Kingdom rally in May.  Gomez has a long history of Islamophobic rhetoric. At a previous Unite the Kingdom event in September 2025 she said that the UK was being “raped into submission” and that attendes should “either fight for this nation or you let all of these rapist Muslims and corrupt politicians take over.” In a failed 2025 congressional race Gomez burned a copy of the Quran and said she wanted to “end Islam in Texas.” 

Sharon Osbourne, wife of the late heavy metal singer Ozzy Osboune, has been dropped as an ambassador for the youth homelessness charity Centrepoint after claiming that she would attend the Unite the Kingdom rally. Osbourne’s official Instagram account posted a comment under a post about the march saying ‘See you at the march.” In a statement Centrepoint said, “Centrepoint has a proud history of supporting young people whatever their background, ethnicity or religion. If we want young people to thrive in this country then we need to ensure our society continues to allow them to live without fear and able to access the opportunities they need to start education or work and leave homelessness behind.”

In Scotland, Reform UK candidates have come under pressure for support for Yaxley-Lennon. In March it emerged that Senga Beresford, Reform UK’s candidate for Dumfiries and Galloway, had replied ‘me’ to a post from Yaxley-Lennon’s account that read, “In the UK Muslims are demanding that sharia law is implemented. I demand that we deport the lot of them. Who’s with me?” Beresford claimed in an interview that she had been agreeing with Yaxley-Lennon’s opposition to grooming gangs. Thomas Kerr, Reform UK candidate for Glasgow Baillieston and Shettleston, defended Beresford by saying that people can “genuinely acknowledge” that Yaxley-Lennon had done “good work” on grooming gangs. 

The Palestine solidarity movement has announced a starting point for their 16 May march after being denied a route which includes a central London endpoint. The march will start on Exhibition Road in West London and end in Waterloo Place, just outside Trafalgar Square. It is billed as both a commemoration of the Nakba and a counter to the Unite the Kingdom rally, which will march from Kingsway to Whitehall and take up the entirety of Trafalgar Square. Police have vowed to maintain a heavy presence on the day.  

Elsewhere

The Homeland Party’s activity has continued to decline, becoming even less regular this month. Leafleting occurred in Nuneaton, Yeovil and Sherborne, and activists conducted a litter pick in Cottingham, East Yorkshire. On the 26th April, the party posted an article from its website on X about its activists attempts to stop a proposed migrant HMO in Lachbank Manor. According to the article, Homeland activist Dave Gardner “spoke to a hearing committee” after “600 complaints” had been received about the HMO. This was the height of the entire Party’s activity in April.

On 26 April, Nick Tenconi’s UK Independence Party (UKIP) held a rally in Leeds alongside the Yorkshire Patriots, but were significantly outnumbered by counter-protestors. In response to the Christian nationalist rhetoric adopted by the party’s current iteration, 35 representatives of Christian communities in Leeds signed an open letter stating that “UKIP do not speak for us or for the Christian faith”. Earlier in the month, Tenconi and anti-trans activist Posie Parker had attended a Turning Point UK stall at the University of Sussex campus at Falmer Station, but faced a counter-protest and were escorted away by police.

Around 12 members of the neo-Nazi White Vanguard (WV), dressed in black and with all but two attendees wearing masks, demonstrated outside the Pakistan High Commission in London “to protest against the rape of young white girls”. WV, which emerged from Youth Alliance and adopts the black bloc aesthetic previously appropriated by groups such as National Action and the Australian National Socialist Network, has undergone a number of splits and changes in membership and doesn’t appear to be in the ascendancy.

A neo-Nazi has been found guilty of preparing terrorist acts after trying to buy a gun and ammunition and compiling a list of potential targets. Alfie Coleman, 21, from Great Notley in Essex, agreed to buy a pistol and ammunition from contacts who turned out to be undercover officers from MI5. His plans - some more plausible than others - included using knives and crossbows, planting explosives and hijacking a plane. Coleman will be sentenced on 8 July.

A man has been given a life sentence for rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and religiously aggravated assault after a brutal attack on a Sikh woman he wrongly believed to be Muslim. John Ashby changed his plea to guilty on all four counts on the second day of the trial. A representative of Sikh Women’s Aid described how the attack had sent "absolute terror" running through "the entire community across the West Midlands".

International

The Guardian has reported on “riot-style combat events” at a compound in Lynchburg, Virginia involving neo-Nazi active clubs, Patriot Front and the Hammerskins skinhead group. The compound is run by the Wolves of Vinland and has hosted gatherings in December and March featuring cage fights, group ‘forest fights’ and training at an on-site grappling gym.

Jakob Marcoulier, a serving US soldier has been charged with making terrorist threats after disclosing to a Discord server detailed plans to attack a synagogue and murder every Jewish person inside.

Far-right activists from across Europe are expected to attend the ‘Remigration Summit’ in Porto at the end of May. Last year’s event, originally planned for Milan but relocated to the town of Gallarate, attracted around 400 attendees.