Essex Police has strongly denied claims by Nigel Farage it “bussed” counter-demonstrators to a protest outside a migrant hotel in Epping.
The Reform UK leader had called for the force’s chief constable to resign over the accusations.
In a video posted on X on Wednesday morning, the Clacton MP said: “This video proves @EssexPoliceUK transported left-wing protesters to The Bell Hotel in Epping. There is no way Chief Constable BJ Harrington can stay in position.”
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He showed footage of people in a police van and said the force had “bussed” them to protests outside a hotel in Epping, Essex, used to house asylum seekers last week.
More than 1,000 people gathered outside The Bell Hotel in protests over two nights last week after an asylum seeker was arrested and charged on suspicion of alleged sexual assaults in the town.
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Essex Police released a statement hours after Mr Farage’s video, refuting his claims.
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“There are claims on social media that Essex Police officers ‘bussed’ protesters to the protest outside the Bell Hotel on Thursday 17 July,” the force said.
“This is categorically wrong.
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“Officers did provide a foot cordon around protesters on their way to the protest, where they and others were allowed to exercise their right to protest.
“Later some people who were clearly at risk of being hurt were also escorted by vehicle away from the area for their safety.
“To reiterate, we categorically did not drive any counter protesters to the site on any occasion.”
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Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington then gave a news conference in which he said 10 arrests had been made after the protests.
“A number of those people have been charged, a number of those people have been remanded in custody for serious offences,” he said.
He added people on social media need to “comment responsibly” because they can have “real world consequences to the communities of Essex”.
Chief Constable Harrington said officers did take people away from the protest “for their safety, for the safety of everyone there, because it was the best operational thing to do to prevent violence, to defuse the situation, we drove them away from a violent confrontation”.
He also insisted his officers “are being absolutely impartial, policing according to the law and making sure we enforce the law and try to protect communities”.
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“I want to make it really, really clear,” he said.
“If you come to protest peacefully and lawfully, then we will allow people to do that. It is their democratic right. It is their legal right.
“If you come here and commit crime, we will deal with that robustly. Working with our partners, we will gather the evidence and we will bring prosecutions because that is in nobody’s interest for people to get hurt.”
