UK

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks, tracking the recent anti-asylum hotel protests across the country, from Epping to Canary Wharf, from Norwich all the way down to the south coast in Waterlooville, I’ve been right in the thick of the story that is gripping the country.

Last year, I was in the middle of another news story too, when I covered the outbreak of the violence at Southport that then spread out into what, quite frankly, ended up being race riots. I remember being only a few yards away from police vans loudly beeping out their last breath as they burnt down to the ground, while young lads on the opposite side of me threw bricks and other missiles directly at a mosque, and proceeded to smash up a local corner shop. Later on I was subject to violence from the crowd myself.

NEW: Women and children marched today to the Britannia Hotel to oppose it

pic.twitter.com/cFTZNdG3i2

— GB Politics (@GBPolitcs) August 3, 2025

England is at tipping point pic.twitter.com/wI7sAiAhxu

— HJB News (@HJB_News__) August 3, 2025

A BBC investigation has exposed the French and UK operations of a powerful and violent smuggling gang taking people across the English Channel in small boats.

A reporter, posing as a migrant wanting to cross, helped us gain unprecedented access to the smugglers’ notorious forest hideout in northern France – an area plagued by armed battles between rival gangs.

Secret filming at a major UK railway station also captured associates of the gang collecting cash payments to secure migrant places on illegal Channel crossings.

The alleged crimes of illegal migrants must not be swept under the carpet.

They still don’t get it. Even after the grooming-gangs scandal, covered up for the sake of multiculturalism, even after the Southport riots, fuelled by the information vacuum left after those horrific murders, British police appear desperate to follow the same failed playbook. Namely, inflaming community tensions in the name of easing them, and treating the public with contempt.

Britain’s newspapers are filled almost daily with stories of horrific crimes carried out by illegal migrants. Yet the Labour government—much like the Conservative administration that preceded it—continually refuses to take decisive action, opting instead to tinker around the edges of the issue at hand.

Ministers said on Saturday they are preparing new plans which would see those who advertise Channel crossings or fake passports on social media face up to five years in prison. A nice side measure, perhaps, but nowhere near significant enough to effect any change on its own.

People advertising illegal Channel crossings online could face up to five years in prison under a new offence the government plans to introduce.

The offence, which the government is seeking to create under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill currently going through Parliament, would form part of a crackdown on the number of migrants coming to the UK on small boats.

Assisting illegal immigration to the UK is already a crime, but officials believe the offence would give police and other agencies more power to disrupt criminal gangs.

Britain’s anti-asylum seeker hotel protests escalated today as an unauthorised “antifascist” demonstration led to clashes with police. The original protest, organised by opponents of migrant housing at the Thistle City Barbican Hotel, remained peaceful. But tensions flared when a masked group in black suddenly flooded the road outside, clashing with police and prompting multiple arrests.

By 11am, locals were already gathering for the 1:30pm anti-migrant protest. A group of older women sitting at a table told me they were attending “because it’s not safe anymore”. Gesturing toward the hotel windows, where asylum seekers peered down at the scene below, one woman recalled, “Four years ago there was no problem when it was one to a room. Now there are too many.”

I can’t get my head around this.

Imagine getting masked-up to protest *against* locals who are concerned about high levels of crime and antisocial behaviour by illegals staying at the Thistle Barbican hotel.

There is something wrong with these people.pic.twitter.com/EXitgTu9iy

— Lee Harris (@addicted2newz) August 2, 2025

A quick report from the Thistle City Hotel in the Barbican.

Antifa and Stand Up To Racism have come mob handed. pic.twitter.com/vkQCZyKEfz

— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) August 2, 2025

VIOLENCE BREAKS OUT AND ANTIFA MEMBER DRAGGED AWAY BY POLICE

– Thistle city Barbican Hotel pic.twitter.com/W6gsCzoQMK

— Emma Dunwell (@ESpeaksFreely) August 2, 2025

A record number of foreign thugs, thieves and sex offenders are costing taxpayers more than £360million a year, shocking new analysis has revealed. Some 10,772 overseas nationals are languishing in overcrowded jails.

This includes 6,673 criminals serving sentences and 3,781 people on remand. Almost half of foreign prisoners have been locked up for violent and sexual crimes, analysis of Ministry of Justice figures has revealed. The MoJ has, for the first time, confirmed 2,083 foreign thugs are behind bars for violent offences. Another 1,159 are on remand.

More than 25,000 migrants have attempted to cross the Channel to the UK in small boats this year, reaching the milestone figure in record time, Home Office figures show.

On Wednesday, 898 migrants were detected crossing the Channel. It means 25,436 arrivals have been recorded since January 1, the earliest in the year that the 25,000 figure has been surpassed. There have been 50 per cent more crossings so far this year, compared with the same period last year.

Record numbers of foreign sex offenders and violent criminals are being held in jails in England and Wales, the first official data by nationality has revealed.

Some 1,731 foreign-national sex offenders were in prison as of June this year, up by 9.9 per cent in 12 months. The rate of increase was nearly three times that of Britons, with the number imprisoned for sex offences up 3.8 per cent, according to data published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on Thursday.

The number of foreign violent offenders held in jails is also at its highest since records began a decade ago. It has risen by 8.8 per cent in a year to 3,250, nearly double the rate of 4.8 per cent for Britons imprisoned for violence.