Councillor Phil Graham

HUNDREDS of residents and community organisations will band together tomorrow (Saturday) to resist ‘far-right’ protests planned in Old Street.

The action follows successive weekends of activity outside asylum hotels across the country, a year after riots gripped the streets of the UK.

Councillor Phil Graham, who has helped organise the counter-demonstration alongside Stand Up To Racism, the TUC, Unison, and Islington Homes for All among others, said: “The protesters are not welcome. Many are good people with good intentions but they’ve been misled by members of the far-right who have told them a pack of lies. All these far-right people are doing is sowing division and they are frightening people when there’s no cause for alarm.”

He added: “People are frightened about what’s happening, they’re frightened about their futures, and you have people who are capitalising on that fear for their own ends.”

Barricades are being put in place this week outside the hotel near King’s Square which is home to asylum seekers, and police have been recruited from community units and the wider London force.

Cllr Graham said: “It feels different from what it was last year. I do feel worried. I feel for these asylum seekers that they’ve not done anything to deserve this.”

Councillor Angelo Weekes, the Town Hall’s community safety chief, confirmed there were almost no concerns about residents from the hotel being involved in criminal incidents outside.

He said: “In seven months in the role, residents weren’t bringing incidents to me about the area. I have to be clear on that. People were saying why are police turning up, why are ambulances turning up. The criticism was that these services are stretched, but it was never about incidents outside.”

Ahead of the planned protests, Cllr Weekes said he felt “nervous” about escalating tensions. He told the Tribune: “There’s a growing feeling that some people are waiting for one thing to be said, and for things to kick off.” The hotel near Old Street has become the subject of recent media attention, with reporters from national newspapers standing outside to film residents and Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp visiting the site.

“March until June, my inbox was fairly quiet,” said Cllr Weekes. “One thing that spiked it was Chris Philp, it really spiked it. Going down there, with the culture that we have on social media and how fast things travel, it was the wrong move. It has risked safety.”

He added: “It’s like the hotel is under surveillance, some people even say they have seen drones. If you’ve got journalists standing outside hotels and you’re sending up drones, the climate it’s going to create [is one of] surveillance and intimidation.”

The community safety chief said he would “ask protesters to be peaceful on Saturday”.

“I think the counter-demonstration is a good thing. We should support it,” he added. “Whose side are we on? We are on the side of the people who don’t have a voice, the side of the oppressed. We’re a borough of sanctuary, we don’t want to give oxygen to these protests, we think there’s a way to manage it. These people have come here to find sanctuary. As a Labour council, we don’t think the long-term solution is to house people in hotels, and the Labour government has already said that.”