Barrister, author and London Islington resident David Renton, 52, attended the counter-demo outside London’s Thistle City Barbican Hotel organised by Islington Community Independents, today.
Yesterday, I was part of the 1500-strong crowd in Islington, which gathered to defend the refugees living in the Thistle City Barbican hotel in north London against protesters.
I went because, although I’m white and British. I’m also the grandchild of refugees: people who had to hide their documents beneath the railway seats as they fled from Hitler. I talked to other people there. Paul Murphy brought his two choirs, The Mixed Up Chorus and Sing For Freedom. Both choirs have included singers that were refugees staying at this hotel. Paul says he came “To defend refugees. To stop the far right.”
It comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told MPs that asylum hotel use will end by the end of this Parliament.
Cathy Bird, a minister for Union Chapel, said, “Britain is a welcoming country. The people who come here are fleeing from wars. In their position, we’d do the same thing.”
Another supporter who didn’t want to give her name said, “This has always been a union area, for people who worked in the print shops at Fleet Street. Generations of people have settled here, Italians in Clerkenwell, the Bangladeshis more recently. We won’t let the racists divide us.”
While on our peaceful march, one angry woman on the other side screamed in my face, “You’re Filth, You’re Filth.” I wasn’t shocked by her clear rage-filled hate, but I am at a loss understanding why you would shout at someone just because they disagree with you?
I tried speaking to one Far Right protester. Michael, told me, “the refugees aren’t law abiding.” I said I thought his fears were exaggerated. We didn’t agree.
One concession Michael made was that he could understand that it must be awful for the men being made to stay in the hotels, often for years, while the home office decides how to process their refugee applications.
Some media outlets have reported that people who are living in hotels waiting for their asylum claims to be processed, who are banned from working, have been working as delivery drivers. This rhetoric plays exactly into the hands of Far Right agitators.
Migrants want to work but the government – both Tories and Labour – have insisted that asylum seekers can’t. “I don’t mind if they do Uber Eats,” Michael told me. What he means is that, in any sensible system, we’d be welcoming refugees’ desire to work, finding them jobs. He’s right on that.
But it goes further than he realises. Michael could accept refugees if they’d do hard, low-paid jobs. I respect anyone who does that work, but it shouldn’t be the limit. Many of the refugees are skilled people. If we did let them work, soon we’d realise that many of them have spent years back home training as doctors, nurses, teachers. They aren’t just grunt labour, they’re desperate to show us their talents, if only we’d let them.
The real danger isn’t the people in this hotel; it’s racist outsiders coming to my town to stir up hate.
David is author of The New Authoritarians Convergence on the Right published by Pluto Press. Available at and