Kent-based far-right agitator Harry Hilden has embarked on a frenetic schedule of protests, self-promotion and online broadcasting in the wake of his 23 November arrest in Faversham, an incident previously reported by Searchlight.
At the same time, support for anti-migrant actions in the area is faltering, with diminishing numbers turning out.
Struggling
Hilden’s hyperactive public presence, amplified through Facebook, online videos and new branding initiatives, has intensified in the days since his arrest, with supporters and anti-fascists alike struggling to track the sheer volume of material he produces.
But the far right in Kent, for some time a hotspot of anti‑migrant agitation, is increasingly marked by disarray, lurching from one poorly attended rally to another, dogged by internal contradictions, criminal baggage and the steady growth of counter‑mobilisations.
Mobilisations waning
Last September, for instance, Dartford saw 200 far‑right activists gather in the town centre, opposed by just 30 anti‑racists.
Yet two months later, at another rally, their numbers had shrunk to around 100, while counter‑protesters swelled to 70–80, bolstered by activists from South East London.
The trend is clear: the far right’s capacity to mobilise is showing signs of waning, while anti‑fascist resistance grows more confident.
Following his arrest, Faversham-based supporters of Hilden styling themselves the “Flag Crusaders” released a rapid succession of video clips putting their spin on the circumstances leading to his arrest.
Many of their posts use the hashtag #kentstandup, linked to Hilden’s newly launched political branding project “Kent Stand Up!”.
But Hilden himself is identifying more overtly with organised fascism, in the form of Paul Golding’s Britain First. Last weekend Hilden spoke at Britain First’s annual conference at the Sutton Sports Bar in Sutton Coldfield.
Given that Golding’s appearance addressing the Faversham anti-immigration rally earlier in the month was at the personal invitation of Hilden, it is unsurprising to see that Hilden is aligning himself increasingly with Britain First.
Also last Saturday, he posted a photograph of himself with Dean Phillpott of the ‘South East London Patriots’ in the bar at the Britain First conference.
Phillpott, a doyen of the Bexley flaggers is certainly a piece of work. He ran DP Waste Management & Recycling Ltd from 2023 until it was struck off the companies register in 2024.
And he has a colourful criminal record:
- In 2005, he was sentenced to 15 months’ prison for his part in a mob-handed knife attack on two men in Abbey Wood.
- In 2020, he was sentenced to five years jail for possession of a prohibited firearm and drugs after police on a surveillance operation watched him take delivery of a revolver.
- More recently, he pleaded guilty to drink-driving on the M25 and was disqualified from driving for 14 months and fined £500.
Hilden’s appearance in the Midlands on Saturday appears to have contributed to the last-minute collapse of an anti-migrant demonstration scheduled for the same day at the Napier Barracks asylum centre just down the road in Folkestone.
With the event cancelled shortly beforehand, the handful of far-right activists who did turn up were heavily outnumbered by anti-racist counter-protesters.
A hastily organised motorcade to Dover the following day, billed as a replacement demonstration, drew only minimal support and culminated in a small, forlorn photo-op on the cliffs.
Two days earlier, with the Flag Crusaders, Hilden appeared in Herne Bay alongside local boxer Fred Ketteringham, presenting the activity as “flag maintenance”.
Ketteringham, who organised a protest in Herne Bay at the end of October, is a boxer who operates online under the moniker “Freddy Ton”. He signed with Warren Boxing Management in August.
He has own chequered past: he received a 21-month prison sentence for involvement in a brawl in Sittingbourne in 2015, and was also later convicted for carrying ammonia outside a nightclub.
His business ventures in roofing and property services appear to have faltered, and his online presence combines boxing promotion and political provocation.
An old Facebook post from 2011 reveals an early fondness for violent racist language.
Hilden is now promoting a 6 December march on Napier Barracks under the “Kent Stand Up!” banner, with transport advertised from Faversham.
In one promotional video, Hilden was filmed outside the barracks attempting, loudly and theatrically, to “request an interview” from staff at the gate.
Among those expressing support online is drum-and-bass performer Gareth “MC Garfe’e / DJ Kinx” Faulkner, who in 2013 was jailed for assault and witness intimidation after a drunken attack on a former partner in Ashford and subsequent threatening messages.
Last weekend’s demonstration at the barracks was supposed to have been graced by the presence of UKIP leader Nick Tenconi, but he was a no show.
Embarrassing
In fact, Kent has not been a great hunting ground for UKIP. In mid‑October, UKIP attempted a rally in Rochester where, again, Tenconi didn’t show up.
If he had it would have been deeply embarrassing: barely a dozen supporters turned up, overshadowed by a larger counter‑demonstration.
As it was, local figures such as Roger Hogg of Maidstone and Kent County Councillor and psychic counsellor Amelia Randall – a recent defector to UKIP from Reform UK – were left exposed as the party’s dwindling relevance became undeniable.
Unhappy with journalists
The local news outlet KentOnline has become a recent target of Hilden’s unhappiness.
In response to their reporting on far-right organising, including leaks from a WhatsApp group run by “Missus Kent”, he has threatened repeated demonstrations outside the newspaper’s Strood office.
On social media he has begun denouncing individual journalists as “stalkers”, after discovering a Facebook function that reveals when non-followers view his posts.
“Missus Kent” herself, aka Jodie Scott aka Goodban, continues to oscillate between gobby, tuneless far‑right activism and eccentric self‑promotion.
Stockpiling weapons
As we have already reported, she got herself into more than a little trouble last month when it was revealed that conversations in her private WhatsApp group, “MissusKent’s Patriotic Community” were turning a little fruity, with discussion of stockpiling weapons including guns and crossbows, carrying out an ‘Islamic genocide’ and killing Keir Starmer.
Involved in some of these exchanges herself, Scott appeared more amused than appalled. She later claimed “lefties” had infiltrated the group and were “distorting” what had been said.
AI-generated gibberish
More recently, she has declared that she has “let Jesus into her life,” though her version of Christianity is filtered through social‑media pseudo‑spirituality, including AI‑generated gibberish about “Christ Consciousness” and “Jesus’ Teachings on the Pineal Gland.”
Another frequent flyer at Kent anti-migrant events is the notorious and openly neo-nazi Mike Gott, who sports facial tattoos and is regularly to be seen draped in a flag of the neo-nazi British Movement.
Other mainstays are the Kent ‘Pink Ladies’ led by Kerrie‑Marie Knight (alias Vant), a flower‑arranger from Maidstone and Snodland.
Interviewed on GB News in late October, she claimed to fear visiting Leybourne Lakes Country Park because of “undocumented men”- a statement more revealing of paranoia than reality, given the park’s most notable undocumented visitors are migratory birds.
Harry Hilden has also now announced plans to open a “combat training” gym for his followers.
Initially he suggested it would operate from a shed he has been building; he now claims the gym will be located elsewhere, proposing instead to convert the shed into a “Kent House of Commons” or headquarters for his loosely defined far-right network, which he alternately labels “National Emergency – Faversham Division” or “Kent Stand Up!”.
Grandiose
As part of a broader drift into grandiose rhetoric, Hilden has recently taken to calling for the reinstatement of the British Empire.
He has also attempted to frame himself as a victim of anti-gypsy racism, asserting in an October post that he has been unfairly branded a racist for his anti-migrant activism.
His message tapped into his own gypsy-traveller heritage, and that of some of those he has mobilised, while displaying little reflection on the dynamics of prejudice, scapegoating and the blaming of entire communities for the actions of a few individuals.
