Not all migrant protesters are far right – but they’re all fuelled by disinformation, writes Natasha Devon

In Bristol, just 35 people turned up – while counter-protesters numbered around 500. And yet the images of flags, placards and shouting outside these hotels make it feel like something far bigger is going on.

Here’s the truth: not everyone at these demonstrations is far right. Some are locals who say they’re worried about veterans, housing or fairness in the system. But whatever brings them there, all of these protests are being driven by the same force – disinformation.

That’s why they seem so impervious to logic. The government has already promised asylum hotels will be gone by 2030. Ministers push out viral clips of police raids to look “tough” on illegal migration. If this was really about policy, you’d expect some of that to calm things down. It hasn’t – because the anger is being fuelled by falsehoods.

Take last week outside the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf. One man insisted: “It’s got nothing to do with racism. My daughter is black… It’s what the government has done to the British people. They’ve got British veterans and rough sleepers – myself – why can’t they get the help?”

The frustration is real, but the premise isn’t. Veterans’ services and rough sleeping policy aren’t linked to the asylum backlog. Connecting them is a classic far-right tactic: setting one vulnerable group against another.

A counter-protester at the same event explained why they had shown up: “I live locally and I recognise a lot of people on the opposite side. Because they’re here nearly every day just spewing hatred. People are scared to walk up this way… I think no human is illegal. I think everyone should be welcome everywhere.”

As The News Agents and The Crime Agents podcasts have uncovered, far-right networks are spreading fabricated claims and even helping organise some protests. Even when locals say they don’t want extremists involved, they often repeat far-right talking points. That’s how disinformation works – it seeps into everyday conversations until it sounds like common sense.

Asylum seekers have been banned from working since 2002, a move made by Blair in a bid to please commentators insisting they were ‘taking our jobs’. The previous Tory government believed if they didn’t process asylum applications it would disincentivise people from crossing the channel. Both of these calculations were disastrously flawed.

We now have a significant backlog and asylum seekers are caught in limbo whilst their applications are processed, sometimes for years at a time.

Contrary to popular belief, the conditions they are kept in are far from luxurious. In fact between 2020-2023 176 asylum seekers died awaiting their application outcome, many by suicide’.

It’s clear the system doesn’t work. Housing people in hotels is dehumanising, expensive, and frustrating for local communities. But if protests are built on disinformation, we can’t have an honest debate about how to fix it.

That’s the real danger. When anger is impervious to logic, everyone loses – except those who thrive on division.