Anti-migrant protesters displaying Union flags clashed with counter-demonstrators in Portsmouth city center today, as police prepared for a series of rallies over the weekend.

Police watched as people on each side gathered on the steps outside the council offices in the Hampshire city.

One protester tied a large flag of St George to the balcony which had on it the words ‘Born in England, Live in England, Die in England’.

The counter protesters also put up a banner, saying ‘Refugees Welcome, Celebrate Diversity’.

Retired car sprayer Mat Silva, 66, from Fareham, expressed his frustration: ‘I’m tired of seeing those who illegally enter our country getting better housing than our veterans and elderly.

‘They get free accommodation, gas, electricity, four meals a day, while our veterans are on the street.’

He continued: ‘Consider the millions being spent daily – if they are legitimate asylum seekers or refugees entering through proper channels, then fine, this isn’t about racism; it’s about illegal entry.’

A woman, opting to remain unnamed, remarked: ‘Family homes are being converted into shared accommodations. We live in areas witnessing an increasing number of new immigrants.’

Rita from Portsmouth, who participated in the Stand Up To Racism counter protest, stated: ‘I am exhausted from being portrayed as defending criminals; what I stand for is human rights.

‘I feel embarrassed by the protest and say this as an elderly white British woman who has been spat on, verbally harassed, and had objects hurled at her, simply for standing on this side of the road.

‘I am angry that my Christianity is being used as a weapon by the right and to be used in the name of fascism.’

Mary, from Portsmouth, said: ‘I believe in dignity, equality and giving people a fair chance.

‘We have all come from somewhere originally, I am from Northern Ireland and we all came from Africa originally.

‘I am really upset at the violent way in which these other people are intimidating people who have fled intimidation all of their lives and are facing it here again, it’s completely wrong.’

Police enforced a gap between the two groups as the anti-immigrant group chanted ‘Send them home’ while the counter group chanted: ‘Refugees are welcome here.’

Portsmouth City Council previously told the Home Office it did not have capacity to take any more asylum seekers – only for hundreds to be moved into the city centre without their knowledge. 

The authority  found that 55 private rental properties were being used to house a minimum of three asylum seekers each last week.

The migrants have been staying in homes of multiple occupation (HMO) – not council housing.

It came just two years after James Hill, Portsmouth’s director of housing, told the Home Office that the ‘system’s capacity was such that we couldn’t support additional asylum seekers’.

But when a public meeting was hosted in July by Amanda Martin, the Labour MP for Portsmouth North, figures showed the number of private rentals being used to house migrants had increased from 10 at the end of 2019 to 58 in April 2024, The Times first reported.

The council confirmed with the Home Office last week that the number is now at 55, according to the newspaper.

The data was uncovered by Ms Martin after Clearsprings Ready Homes wrote to a parliamentary committee this year amid an inquiry into accommodation for asylum seekers.

Portsmouth City Council said it was never notified about the use of the properties to house migrants.

A wave of protests are set to sweep the country this weekend targeting migrant hotels.

Anti-immigration campaigners are looking to ride on the back of this week’s landmark judgment that saw the High Court order the removal of migrants from a hotel in Epping, Essex.

Protests at up to 30 hotels are believed to be planned as communities seek to replicate the ruling for The Bell Hotel, which, pending an appeal, must be closed within weeks.

The hotel had been at the centre of protests after an asylum seeker living there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl, which he denies.

Hotels in Cannock, Chichester and Tamworth are among those expected to be targeted by demonstrations, with anti-racism groups already organising counter-protests in 15 locations across the three-day Bank Holiday weekend.

They are prepared to turn up tonight in the likes of Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Leicester, Leeds, Orpington, Perth, Aberdeen and Altrincham.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has used Epping as a rallying cry, saying: ‘Let’s hold peaceful protests outside hotels and put pressure on councils to go to court to try to get illegal immigrants out.’

On Tuesday, a judge granted a temporary injunction against migrants being housed at The Bell Hotel after Epping Forest council argued that it was necessary for ‘the safety of nearby residents’ and to reduce the threat of ‘violent protests’.

As it tried, unsuccessfully, to intervene in the case at the eleventh hour, the Home Office argued that granting Epping’s application ‘runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests’.

The ruling threatens to collapse Labour’s asylum system as protesters take to the streets and councils across the country prepare to hit the Home Office with copycat litigation over the use of hotels in their areas.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has written to all Conservative councils pledging support for any legal action, while Reform UK’s leaders have encouraged people to protest at their local asylum hotels.

But anti-racism groups have warned the ruling sets a ‘dangerous precedent’, with Stand Up To Racism saying that it will ’embolden the far-Right to call more protests outside hotels housing refugees’.

Labour grandee Lord Falconer urged the Home Office to appeal against the Epping judgment on Thursday as he admitted the ruling ’causes great problems’ for the Government.

The peer, who served as justice secretary under Sir Tony Blair and as Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow attorney general, said it ‘gives rise to the expectation that some asylum hotels can be closed’.

Lord Falconer said the ruling presents Labour with a ‘very troublesome issue, namely does demonstrations outside these hotels lead to it being more likely that they will be closed’.

Urging the Government ‘very strongly’ to appeal, he told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It puts the courts and the politicians in a difficult position.