England is facing a summer marked by rising racist abuse and intimidation, with analysts warning that far-right agitation, amplified by sections of the media and political establishment, is emboldening extremists.
Since July, anti-immigrant protests – many led or infiltrated by far-right groups – have been staged outside hotels housing asylum seekers, creating flashpoints that have spread across the country.
What began as demonstrations has increasingly tipped into open racism, with national flags often deployed as symbols of exclusion and the hostility spilling into outright harassment of minority communities.
Experts say the wave of hostility is being fuelled by dog-whistle politics from right-wing figures and media outlets, which frame refugees and Muslims as a threat and deflect attention from deeper issues – such as austerity, inequality, and collapsing public services.
Mosques and Islamic centres targeted
Muslim communities have been among the primary targets.
In Essex, Basildon’s Islamic Centre was vandalised this week with graffiti reading “Christ is King” and “This is England”, alongside a red-painted St George’s cross.
Essex Police released CCTV footage of two men wanted in connection with the attack. Volunteers quickly scrubbed the walls clean, but worshippers said the incident left them feeling vulnerable.
Meanwhile, in Birkenhead, CCTV captured a hooded man attaching a Union Jack to the gates of Wirral Deen Mosque. A spokesperson told local media they believed the individual hoped the act would be offensive, but the mosque responded by reclaiming the symbol and putting the flag on its window.
“We decided we needed to claim our narrative of being British and being Muslim and our claim as much as anybody’s to the Union Jack,” mosque trustee Ibrahim Syed told the Liverpool Echo.
Families abused, businesses attacked
The wave of hostility has spread from buildings of worship to individuals in their daily lives.
In Yorkshire, Green Party councillor Mothin Ali shared a video of his family being racially abused while on a beach. Teenagers were filmed heckling him, shouting “go back to your country”, and exposing themselves.
“This is now everyday reality for many of us. A family day out to the beach results in a torrent of racist abuse followed by indecent exposure at my family. My youngest is 6. Before I started recording, they started with ‘get out of our country’ the same kind of line that the likes of Reform UK and Rupert Lowe push,“ said Ali on X.
In Essex, a 33-year-old man was arrested after a viral video showed a man painting an England flag on homes and another hurling racial abuse at a Muslim woman walking with her child, calling her a “rag head”.
Other minorities have also been targeted. A Filipino NHS worker and her young daughter were assaulted and racially abused. In another case, racist graffiti was sprayed on a Chinese takeaway before being removed by a kind local window cleaner.
Last week, two Sikh taxi drivers said they feared for their lives during an unprovoked attack near Wolverhampton station, which police are treating as a racially aggravated assault.
Commentators online say the unrest reflects a disturbing trend: fuelled by mainstream figures, far-right groups and their sympathisers are using patriotic symbols as cover for openly racist acts. Social media is rife with videos of harassment and graffiti, and community leaders fear the environment is creating fertile ground for extremist violence.
