Scuffles and police horse falls as left wing counter protesters try to stop right wing march through Sheffield
Scuffles as right wing march takes place through Sheffield city centre
Scores of right wing campaigners marched through Sheffield, despite efforts by left wing counter protesters to stop them.
South Yorkshire Police officers were joined by police from several other forces as they tried to keep the peace around the Raise the Colours march, which took the right wing group from The Peace Gardens to Blonk Street.
Green Party officials had criticised the route for taking the protesters close to accommodation used by immigrants, and criticised police for allowing the march to take place..
Leaving the Peace Gardens at around 1.30pm, police officers, including vans and horses, had to move counter-protesters out of the way at several points during the route, as they tried to stop the march.
Right wingers set off from the Peace Gardens carrying banners and shouting slogans including ‘Whose streets? Our Streets’, ‘I can’t breathe’, and ‘Two Tier Kier’.
Leaders of the march had told people via a tannoy to do as police directed them during the route, and said they would not be an anti-social presence.
Traffic was stopped while the march made its way across the city centre, with a number of scuffles between police and counter-protesters on the way.
There were concerns for a police horse and its rider at one stage on the route, as the animal took a fall on the pavement outside the small cafe in front of the steelworker mural on Castle Street. Its rider also landed on the ground.
The horse was led away by an officer following the incident, and officers appeared to be checking on it.
The protesters were eventually taken to Blonk Street, where they gathered for a period of time, with the both ends of the road sealed off by police.
It is not known how many people were arrested during the protest march.
Before the march, dozens of police officers had already gathered in the city centre around Fargate, the Peace Gardens and Tudor Square, with left-wing protesters carrying out counter-protests at Tudor Square.
A number of counter-protesters had also gathered at the top of Fargate. Police could be seen appearing to arrest a man just outside Sheffield Town Hall earlier.
Police horses were also in place on Pinstone Street, between the Fargate counter protesters, and the Raise the Colours protest.
Counter protesters made speeches in Tudor Square, and chanted that immigrants were welcome.
Labour and Green members of Sheffield Council also spoke at the counter-protest.
Green Coun Alexi Dimond said the size of the gathering of counter-protesters showed Sheffield was a city of sanctuary.
He also criticised South Yorkshire Police for agreeing to facilitate what he described as a far-right demonstration targeting vulnerable people where they lived, saying that the protest should not be allowed near a migrant hotel.
He said: “Unfortunately, today, South Yorkshire Police have made the shameful decision to facilitate a far right demonstration targeting vulnerable people seeking safety where they live. This would not be allowed to happen to any other group.”
Explaining the horrors of refugees fleeing war zones, Labour Councillor Safiya Saeed, a former Sheffield mayor, said some of her family had bullet wounds when they came to Sheffield to flee war.
She said she and her family had suffered racism, including people refusing to sit next to them on buses.
People were going about their every day business away from the protesters and counter-protesters, although some parents could be heard explaining the children they would not be staying in town for long.
Businesses appeared to be open as usual.