Faversham in Kent has recently been the scene of some tense confrontations between anti-asylum protesters and anti-racist counter-demonstrators. And prominent amongst the far-right group have been a notorious, hardline neo-nazi and the ‘singer’ who’s been dubbed the ‘pound shop Lily Allen’.
Front and centre amongst the racists has been veteran far-right figure Mike Gott, known online as “Carl England”.
From Bournemouth in Dorset, Gott has a long history of involvement in the National Front and other extremist groups, most recently the neo-nazi British Movement, and has several convictions for assault. He has recently been turning up at racist demonstrations all across south-east England.
Knuckleduster tattoo
He is recognisable from a knuckleduster tattoo on his face and the British Movement flag he wears draped over his shoulders.
At one recent demonstration Gott arrived with a small group — including, incongruously, a woman in a pink tutu — who have appeared with him at other Kent anti-asylum events in Maidstone and Dartford, where they were photographed with Reform Party councillors.
Also at the forefront of the anti-migrant protests has been the activist known as “Jodie Missus Kent”, who combines racist campaigning with an almost certainly doomed attempt at a singing career.
She specialises in eye-wateringly defamatory songs about Keir Starmer, which was why she was invited to perform at the Tommy Robinson ‘Uniting the Kingdom’ rally in London on 13 September .
As Searchlight revealed last week, although she has tried hard to keep her identity secret, she is actually Jodie Scott (or Jodie Goodban, her maiden name) who runs a cleaning business in Whitstable.
A further contingent has come from a group of elderly bikers led by Ian “Stumpy” Maggs, a 61-year-old from Sittingbourne who fronts the “Kent Motor Heads”.
A former construction labourer with a background in classic-vehicle events and music promotion, Maggs previously organised a biker-led “Stop the Boats” protest in Dover in April.
Although he describes himself as non-political, Maggs was a long-time associate of the late Martin Clarke, a controversial former Conservative councillor in Sittingbourne with a record of racist remarks.
Maggs’s fiancée, Gaynor Banyard, active on Facebook under the name “Gaye Brocks Banyard”, is a vocal supporter of the anti-asylum cause, often posting lengthy messages that suggest a more ideologically developed stance than some other activists.
‘Security team’
The principal organiser of the protests in Faversham is Harry (Regan) Hilden, a 29-year-old from Canterbury with a prior conviction dating from his teens for involvement in a violent street battle.
He received a six-month prison sentence after a brawl in which gang members from Sittingbourne and Faversham, some wearing balaclavas, used bottles, baseball bats and sticks on each other in a return match following a punch-up at Faversham Carnival.
Now describing himself as a Christian cage-fighter and “Warrior of Christ”, Hilden has announced plans to provide a “paid security team” at the next protest, scheduled for 5 October, and has urged his supporters to abstain from alcohol during demonstrations.
Religious messaging
Flags displayed during the protests in Faversham have included banners with religious slogans such as “Christ is King” and “Jesus – the way, the truth, the life”, drawing criticism from some local church leaders.
A former CBD product retailer, Hilden responded to a local journalist questioning his claims about asylum-seekers in Sittingbourne, with: “I would not give you my used toilet paper, you left-wing propagandists.”
The protests have attracted support from other local political figures. Mike Rolfe, a former Labour parliamentary candidate for Sittingbourne and Sheppey who later joined the Conservatives and now leads a breakaway Criminal Justice Workers Union, has posted material sympathetic to the anti-asylum cause.
Mike Baldock, leader of the Swale Independents and a former UKIP and Labour member, has argued that opponents of the protests risk “driving people into the arms of the real racists” by stigmatising those with concerns about migration.
Baldock, a former leader of Swale Borough Council who lost his county seat to Reform UK in May, has been criticised for sympathising with Maggs when one of the biker leader’s social-media accounts was suspended for anti-migrant content. He nevertheless signed a cross-party council statement declaring that “racism has no place in our borough”.
Further protests
As both sides prepare for further demonstrations, tensions are running rather high. Hilden’s supporters have warned they will resist attempts by local volunteers to remove protest flags and banners, with Maggs threatening to send a “posse” of bikers to support them. The town faces the prospect of another racist protest on 5 October.
