Local protesters have gathered under the banner “Thistle Barbican needs to go – locals say no”, against the use of a hotel in Islington, North London accommodating asylum seekers.

A counter-protest, organised by Stand Up To Racism and supported by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, as well as other groups including Finsbury Park Mosque and Islington Labour Party, has also taken to the streets. 

People believed to be migrants watched from open windows inside the hotel, filming and smiling on their mobile phones as protesters chanted and banged drums in the street below. 

Brief clashes transpired between the two groups, before police separated the opposing sides, with the Metropolitan Police imposing conditions on both the protest and counter demonstration.

A group of anti-fascist protesters blocked a junction outside the hotel in breach of conditions, with officers being forced to push their way into the crowd to detain several demonstrators, dragging them out by their arms and legs. …

Nine people have been arrested so far, one for support of Palestine Action, one for a public order offence with seven others detained for breaching Public Order conditions. …

‘Patriots of Britain’ and ‘Together for the Children’ have also voiced their support for the protests. 

A student counter-protester outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel said he wants migrants to “feel safe” in Britain.

Pat Prendergast, 21, said: “I want people to feel safe. I think the (rival protesters) over there are making people feel unsafe.

“I want to stand up in solidarity and say that, you know, we want people here. We want migrants. We want asylum seekers.”

A noticeably smaller group of protesters waved union flags and held banners outside the hotel, with one man chanting in the direction of the hotel: ‘“Get these scum off our streets.” …

Elsewhere, at The New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle there are set to be protests with online posts advertising them as “for our children, for our future”.

A ‘stop the far-Right and fascists in Newcastle’ counter-protest has also been organised by Stand Up To Racism at the nearby Laing Art Gallery. …

On Friday, around 100 people attended a protest outside the Stanwell Hotel in Spelthorne in Surrey, during which a packet of lit firelighters was thrown at police. …

A coach full of suspected migrants was seen arriving at the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf at around 1.40am on Saturday morning.

Tower Hamlets Council confirmed the Government intends to use the hotel – which has around 500 rooms – for asylum seekers in a move that has angered anti-migrant protesters and guests whose bookings have been cancelled

Footage of the passengers getting off the coach showed they were all men, with the vast majority dressed in matching grey tracksuit tops and bottoms. …

Protests have broken out across the country this summer, with more than 150 gathering outside The Park Hotel, in Diss, Norfolk last week after the Home Office announced plans to change it from housing asylum-seeker families to single men.