Britain First 'anti-immigration' bus on Southend seafront

Britain First visited the seafront on Saturday after claiming Southend was “becoming an increasingly dangerous place”, and alleging that “hordes of immigrants” had been involved in the violence last Tuesday. 

The group have been slammed by councillor for public safety, Martin Terry, for attempting to make a political point of the issues seen in the city, adding “we don’t want to see that rubbish” in Southend. 

Following the violence on Tuesday, which followed a “beach party” organised on social media, eight people have been charged and appeared in court on Saturday. 

According to Mr Terry, the group driving the Britain First van were told to move on by police.

'Battle bus' - The van driving through Rayleigh High Street (Image: Britain First)

He said: “When I arrived on Saturday, there was a Britain First van with protected windshields and great big banners with anti-immigration messages driving up and down City Beach playing the national anthem - the police swiftly dealt with it.

“I won’t go into the politics of it all, but we don’t want to see that rubbish in this city and that van was going up and down the seafront playing the national anthem. They have targeted Southend and they were stoking up trouble.”

The message on the van read “Britain First Deport Illegal Immigrants” and a video released by the party shows the group driving up and down the seafront on Saturday. 

Mr Terry added: “I am deeply concerned after witnessing this, it is a really dreadful situation we have got into after years of ‘Stop The Boats’ and this and that.

“There are loads of issues in the UK and they are finding a scapegoat, we all know the volume of immigration is too high, but it is not the cause of these issues.”

Southend Council Labour leader Daniel Cowan noted that he was “aware” of what had happened on Saturday and that “police had a conversation with the driver”.

Britain First claimed to be “surprised” at the “huge support we received from the local English residents”.

'We received huge support in Southend'

Co-founder of the group, Paul Golding, said: “As you can see from the video we published on the day, Britain First received huge support from local English residents in Southend.

“The locals we spoke to were sick and tired of the influx of third world immigrants into the town, especially those fighting on the seafront with knives.”

Mr Golding said the party will “return” to Southend if “things continue to deteriorate”. 

He added: “If things continue to deteriorate in Southend, we will return with two of our battle buses.

“We condemn the local Labour and Conservative politicians who have done nothing about this growing problem.”