Blink and you’d have nearly missed them. It was just after 4pm when the rent-a-crowd from Stand Up To Racism descended on The Bell Hotel on the edge of Epping.
They were on their way home again within three-quarters of hour. Cynical observers might suggest that many of them had long journeys and they didn’t want to get home too late.
They were there, of course, to stage a counter-protest against the latest demonstration by local people over the hotel being used to house migrants.
The controversy has been growing since Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl eight days after arriving in the UK. Kebatu, 38, who had been staying at the hotel, denies all three charges he faces.
Police shepherded around 500 of the Left-wing protesters into a field by the hotel after stressing earlier that they had a ‘really robust plan’ to deal with trouble.
Their warning came after hard-Right activist Tommy Robinson indicated last week he planned to attend and would be ‘bringing thousands more with me’ – before apparently changing his mind.
Credit where it is due, the Stand Up To Racism mob certainly succeeded in making themselves heard. There may be question marks over their commitment, but there was nothing wrong with their vocal cords or lung capacity. To the tune of Middle Of The Road’s 1970 hit Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, they taunted the opposing crowd over Robinson’s no-show with goading chants of ‘Where’s your Tommy gone?’
There were some more predictable choruses of ‘Say it loud, Say it clear, Asylum seekers welcome here’ and placards with slogans such as ‘Unite against the Far Right’, ‘No to Racism, No to Hatred’. There was also an exchange of abuse with the anti-hotel side, who were stationed only a few yards away.
It was just after 4pm when the rent-a-crowd from Stand Up To Racism (pictured) descended on The Bell Hotel on the edge of Epping
They were on their way home again within three-quarters of hour. Pictured: Stand Up To Racism counter-protesters at The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, on July 27, 2025
They were there, of course, to stage a counter-protest (pictured) against the latest demonstration by local people over the hotel being used to house migrants
And then they departed in a sea of banners and flags, including – almost inevitably – a smattering in the Palestinian colours.
Last week, the Mail revealed that the protests against the decision to requisition The Bell Hotel for migrants were spear-headed not by hard-Right activists but a group of local mothers, spurred into action by the perceived threat to their daughters.
‘I think women are naturally more tolerant – we have got to put up with men after all – but when you start to threaten our children, then we snap,’ said Orla Minihane, a mother of three teenagers who has become a vocal council candidate for the Reform Party.
Yesterday, before the arrival of the Stand Up To Racism protesters, police had kept a discreet presence at the rail station. By 1pm, however, officers in riot gear were in position five yards apart outside The Bell. Behind them, the hotel itself was surrounded by 8ft security barriers.
Reinforcements had been drafted in from forces across Britain, including Cheshire, Lancashire, Leicester and Wales as well as both the Met and City of London Police, to assist Essex Police. Officers had banned face coverings to root out troublemakers.
Across the High Road, residents demanding the hotel’s closure were gathering, some draped in Union Jacks, others waving St George’s Crosses. Placards were emblazoned with slogans such as ‘Protect our Kids’, ‘Defend our girls, deport foreign criminals’ and ‘Make Britain Great’.
Judging by people I spoke to, most of the crowd, which was pretty evenly split by age and gender, were either part of the immediate community or from nearby areas. Local hairdresser Kelly Hill said: ‘This isn’t fair. The Government has to be held to account. We have rights as well.’
Stan Booth said: ‘I have sympathy for people who are genuinely seeking asylum or have had to flee their own countries for legitimate reasons. But it is unreal what we have here. Nobody knows who they are, where they’ve come from or what they have done.’
‘I think women are naturally more tolerant – we have got to put up with men after all – but when you start to threaten our children, then we snap,’ said Orla Minihane (pictured), a mother of three teenagers
Across the High Road, residents demanding the hotel’s closure were gathering (pictured), some draped in Union Jacks, others waving St George’s Crosses
The migrants were also stuck behind security barriers, prompting one protester to put up homemade ‘prisoner of war’ signs on the bars. Someone else lightened the mood at one point by playing the theme music from The Great Escape over a sound system.
Meanwhile, cheers rang out as excerpts from historical speeches were played. They included Winston Churchill’s famous wartime address to the House of Commons on June 4, 1940, when he declared: ‘We shall never surrender.’
There were cheers, too, when a clip was played of Margaret Thatcher in Parliament, warning of ‘international chaos’ if we ‘get to a situation where illegal immigrants cannot be returned to their country of origin’.
Yet despite the occasional moments of levity, the atmosphere among the protesters was one of grim determination. One of the organisers, 40-year-old Sarah White, said: ‘This is about sending a clear message that we don’t want a hotel in our town housing undocumented men.
‘It needs closing down. No area should have them.’
Rose Thomas, from Basildon, said: ‘There’s already a strong message. We don’t want hotels full of men from foreign countries.’
Nor were the protesters without the backing of fellow locals. Over the course of several hours, practically every third or fourth driver tooted their car horn in support.
It is difficult to see the residents of this quintessentially English town giving up their fight soon.
