Disclaimer: This article contains speech that may be sensitive to readers. Wessex Scene does not condone nor support any of the far-right views nor hate speech voiced during any far-right protests.
“This is a war, it’s actually a war, a war like no other world has been in, against the corrupt governments…”
[Who do you feel represents you in British politics?]
“Donald Trump. Donald Trump owns this country, yeah you can laugh at that, but look at how he had Starmer and Sadiq C*nt in his hands”.
While not all of the protesters we spoke to at the Southampton Patriots march were as hyperbolic as this MAGA-hat wearing British patriot, the masses who took to Southampton’s streets all felt a strong grievance against some facet of modern Britain.
On Sunday 26th October, traffic in Portswood ground to a halt as a column of hundreds of protesters marched down Avenue Road, assembling at Hoglands Park as part of one of Southampton’s largest far-right rallies in recent memory.
Southampton Patriots have been regularly demonstrating in front of Highfield Hotel, which is allegedly housing asylum seekers, often across from a sizeable number of counter-protesters with a notable university student contingent.
Surrounded by a large police presence, protesters stayed in Hoglands Park throughout the evening as a temporary stage hosted speeches lambasting illegal immigrants with colourful personal anecdotes.
The event attracted people from across the South and was live streamed by Tommy Robinson. Crowds were serenaded by a likely AI-generated track which condemned Keir Starmer’s complicity in the ongoing small boats crisis.
While there was no infighting between the protesters, our conversations with them revealed a remarkable diversity of opinion. While demographics did skew towards the archetypal image of the white middle-age male Reform voter, chants were led by both men and women, young and old – and even a mix of white and non-white voices.
Southampton Patriots have attracted a great deal of criticism from Southampton’s university community in recent weeks, and this article is in no way intended to glorify hateful views.
Rather, our objective was to develop a holistic understanding of the ideologies that many Brits are now so eager to convey – both to facilitate better communication across the political spectrum and to penetrate the echo chambers in which these beliefs would otherwise exist unchallenged. Therefore, this article will include opinions that many readers may find inflammatory.
Whose Streets? Interpretations of Immigration to Britain:
Surprisingly, many sung the praises of immigration and a global Britain; only lambasting what they considered to be a crisis of undocumented migrants perpetuated by a weak border policy. A UKIP-supporting family that described these concerns to us followed them up by praising the work ethic of immigrants, even saying many excelled over native British workers in fields such as healthcare and construction:
“We’re quite happy to support legal migration, when they come legally, they are very hard-working, but when they’re not working, they’re not paying taxes and then it’s everyone else’s expense. A lot of them are harder working than the British”
While far-right voices bemoaned surprisingly similar frustrations over national services and the cost of living that left-wing populists often target, immigration was singled out as the cause of these deficiencies. When asked to identify the most pressing issue faced by Britain today, two respondents named the rising cost of living – and a former UKIP councillor, who somewhat ironically now spends his free time sailing to France on his private boat, named the rising cost of housing.
However, they blamed this on the British government’s spending on asylum seekers. Westminster now spends approximately £5 billion annually on supporting Britain’s roughly 110,000 asylum seekers, from a fiscal budget totaling £1.2 trillion – less than 0.1%. Asylum seekers also make up a small percentage of total immigration figures, which the UK government calculates to add 400,000 jobs and £6 billion in tax revenue annually to the British economy.
Another woman, who works as a teacher, told us she was marching out of concern that British national pride was under threat. Stressing the fact that sovereign nations need to have borders, she heavily criticised the “woke mindset” of younger generations, who had lost the essence of ‘Britishness’ along the way:
“Britain should be British. Wales should be Welsh. Scotland should be Scottish. France should be French … This is being diluted over time. [I would tell students] to be proud of where you come from; and to talk to us.”
While this woman’s original grievances were centred on feelings of societal anomie from the alienating “dilution” of Britishness, further questioning revealed that her interpretation of Britishness was “not entirely cultural”.
She drew particular attention to Britain’s “Judeo-Christian heritage”, implicitly arguing that Britishness was a static concept that should resist, not embrace, immigration-induced demographic shifts. Another point of frustration was that white Brits would in the coming decades become a minority group in the UK – a trend that meant the death, not diversification, of British culture according to her.
Right-wing Populism and Westminster:
Another key issue was the lack of recognition from Westminster. Chants of “Keir Starmer’s a w*nker” set the backdrop for many of our conversations, and all of our interviewees agreed that the Labour Party were negligent to the needs of everyday Brits.
Many also criticised the perceived homogeneity of Britain’s mainstream parties, which formed an elite-led establishment consensus and therefore necessitated an outsider to change the status quo.
“Democracy in this country is gone. The people have spoken, the people say we don’t want this [illegal immigration]happening and it still happens. We need something new”
Surprisingly, aside from the former UKIP councillor who believed in Farage’s political project, no other protesters expressed favourable views towards Reform’s leader. One protester referred to him as a “grifter”, and another suggested he would destroy the middle class by favouring millionaires.
Tommy Robinson, alongside Advance UK leader Ben Habib, were more commonly named as representative leaders for these movements. However, most said they would nonetheless vote for Reform to avoid splitting the right-wing vote.
An International Far-Right?
Racial nationalism was a reoccurring theme, and the march also appeared to be hosting a contingent of uniformed neo-Nazis. Several men present were clad in all black and sporting identical “HH” Helly Hansen jackets.
This particular article of clothing has become the uniform of choice for the Australia National Socialist Network, and is used by neo-Nazis to tacitly signal support for Hitler (using the HH branding) whilst maintaining a degree of plausible deniability.
It is unclear what organisation the men present at Southampton were a part of, but several were picked out of the crowd by police and arrested once the rally had reached its destination.
Figure 1,2,3: Photographs of the uniformed men all sporting “HH” jackets from Sunday’s protest; captured by Wessex Scene.
Figure 4: Australian neo-Nazi Leader Thomas Sewell in identical uniform. Sewell was recently arrested for a racist assault on indigenous Australians in Melbourne.
There was also an undeniable trans-Atlantic connection. Beyond the aforementioned MAGA supporter openly professing a desire for the UK to be annexed by the United States, MAGA hats, Charlie Kirk shirts and Israeli flags were common regalia amongst the protestors.
Surprisingly, the demonstrators included some second-generation migrants. One man of Afghan heritage revealed to us that his parents had settled in the UK illegally, although this did not deter him from joining forces with right wing demonstrators. He expressed a strong admiration for British culture, and a high degree of loathing for his own.
“Who ended slavery? It was whites, who gave us human rights? It was whites.”
But, when asked if he considered himself British, he hesitated.
“Nowadays the standards for getting a British pass is pretty low. The standard is just, if you’re born here, boom, you get it. And if you come here illegally, boom, you get it”
Despite this, he went on to claim that he had a “British spirit”, and that his main ideology was orientated towards “being a nice guy”. It is clear many of the demonstrators, including those not of British descent, upheld ‘traditional’ British culture as a civilising force internationally.
Closing Thoughts:
During our day with protesters at the Southampton Patriots march, we encountered a mixture of dismissiveness and a desire for dialogue with Southampton’s students. In that spirit, and without any expectation that this outreach will be reciprocated by the Patriots, their voices are displayed here.
It is important to understand the sentiments that draw people to these movements, so that the more hateful narratives present at these protests may be counteracted.
If any of the opinions voiced by far-right protesters in this article, or in general, have impacted you personally, you can reach out to the Student Hub on a 24/7 basis.
If you have been racially attacked and are seeking support, Stand Against Racism & Inequality is a charity that offers support and advice.
