Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
Today we report, not for the first time, on the activities of the far-right in Blackpool.
Very often, these behaviours are carried out under the justification of protecting women and children.
But what happens when campaigners in that very area reject those sentiments?
It’s a long and detailed piece of proper journalism from Michael Holmes and we hope you can take the decision to support what we do and allow this type of reporting.
This year’s Reclaim The Night march, organised by young people from Empowerment Charity with support from Reclaim Blackpool and fundraising from protective services students at Blackpool Sixth Form, will be on November 25. Held to take a stand against violence and demand safer streets for women and girls, it will start at 5.45pm at the Abingdon Street Market before making its way through the town centre.
Blackpool briefing
🚃 Blackpool Council says it is now moving forward with plans to restore the main tram shed which houses the town’s precious heritage trams and revive the much-loved Tramtown attraction.
There have been ongoing concerns about the closure in April this year of the Tramtown visitor attraction at Rigby Road and the fact that the workshop is in such a poor state it is having to be demolished.
Residents and tram enthusiasts have also expressed frustration that the heritage trams have not been running this year, apart from two of the vehicles operating during the Lightpool festival – illuminated Western Train and the Frigate (HMS Blackpool) tram.
These concerns led to Blackpool South MP Chris Webb recently giving assurances that he would “fight for the future” of the town’s historic tram fleet as plans continue to secure a permanent home for its heritage collection.
Now Blackpool Council Leader, Cllr Lynn Williams, has given a new statement on the Rigby Road site, revealing a project is being put together.
🚧 Blackpool residents are being asked for their views on a multi-million pound project currently under construction near the town centre.
Blackpool and The Fylde College are running an engagement survey to hear people’s thoughts on the new £65 million Multiversity campus.
Work continues to advance on the circa 102,400 sq ft (gross internal area) Multiversity campus, which will bring 3,000 students, apprentices and staff into the town centre when it opens in September 2028.
🗳️ A leading Reform UK member in Blackpool has hit back - in very strong terms - at claims the soup kitchen charity Amazing Graze, which he founded but no longer runs, has been using its premises for political purposes as a call centre for the party.
Watchdog organisation the Charity Commission says it is aware of potential concerns and is assessing information on the matter.
Mark Butcher says that while a room above the charity’s Bolton Street premises has been used, it is available for any organisation to hire and is strictly separate from the charity itself.
He says complaints made about the issue are part of an attempt to discredit him, the charity and Reform UK. He also attacked both The Gazette and The Blackpool Lead in a post on Facebook after those complaints were reported.
It follows posts on on the branch’s social media page advertising for call centre operators and seeking new candidates for the party. The postal address listed is 44 Bolton Street, in South Shore – the charity’s base.
Two years ago, complaints were made to the watchdog after Facebook posts showing Butcher shaking hands with Reform UK leader Richard Tice, with Reform UK publicity to the side, and inviting people to join him on the campaign trail.
Charity Commission guidance says charities can take part in political activity that “supports their purpose and is in their best interests”.
However, it adds that charities “must remain independent and must not give their support to a political party”.
Butcher, who still helps out with the charity but is no longer a board member, said: “This is another move by political opponents to discredit me but it is really unfair to a charity which is doing good work to help homeless and vulnerable people in our community.
“Amazing Graze has helped a lot of people in Blackpool and I was even invited to meet King Charles to receive a Coronation Award back in 2023, because of the voluntary work with Amazing Graze.
“The fact is that Amazing Graze rents out an upstairs room which can be used by any legitimate person for their own use, and I paid £25 to rent it out.
“The use of that room is nothing to do with Amazing Graze so the charity is not breaking any rules at all.”
A spokesperson for the Charity Commission said: “We are aware of potential concerns regarding political campaigning at Amazing Graze and are assessing information to determine if this is a matter for the Commission.
“We have previously engaged with the charity on political engagement and that will be considered in our assessment of these concerns.”
Women do not need to be protected by the far-right: They want to be listened to
By Michael Holmes
It was on the tram tracks at Talbot Square that the anti-immigration protest first threatened to derail into violence.
A heavy-set, balding man with a lion tattooed on his hand took exception to a cardboard sign being held aloft by a bespectacled woman wearing a jersey in support of the local children’s hospice Brian House.
In capital letters, daubed in black against a hand-drawn red Tower, read the words “thugs and racists not welcome in Blackpool”.
As a crowd of protesters and counter-protesters moved from the Town Hall to the Metropole, passing The Counting House pub, the man grabbed the sign and tried to tear it from the defiant woman’s hands.
Moments later, the crowd he had been marching with crossed the Promenade and gathered outside the Metropole, the resort hotel that was at the time housing asylum seekers, to chant about protecting women and girls.
It was a hastily organised demonstration that descended into rioting in 2024 after the slaying of three young girls in Southport and incorrect internet claims that the attacker was a man called Ali Al-Shakati who had arrived in England on a small boat.
In the town centre earlier this year, a crowd confronted a woman pushing a pram and walking a dog, while a man she was with carried a newborn baby and a toddler, after she shouted “asylum seekers are welcome here”.
The scene was so vitriolic, with men yelling at her while pushing vlogging cameras towards her face, that even Ryan Ferguson, a sweetheart of the far-right, jumped in front of the woman to urge the mob to retreat.
“No, no,” he shouted as the woman’s dog stood shaking, its tail tucked between its hind legs, and police officers ushered the young family to safety.
More recently, under the guise of protecting women, at least two men from the so-called Blackpool Patriot Platform ordered a young black man - guilty of sitting on a park bench on a sunny day and reading from his phone - to leave a Thornton park.
“Women and children” do not “feel safe with foreign men, sitting, staring at them”, they insisted, despite admitting the clearly bewildered man had done nothing wrong.
The group, one of a string of street patrol gangs set up across the UK, asks for people to provide information about “any illegal migrants in your area”.
On Friday (October 16), it shared a post from ex-boxer James Davenport, who wrote on Facebook: “The head of the BRITISH ARMY has warned that the BRITISH PUBLIC must prepare to make SACRIFICES.
“Well come then WHO’S F+CKING HAVING IT? Erm what about all these strange men in the country shin will they help make sure our WOMAN & CHILDREN ARE SAFE ?”
Reclaim Blackpool, set up after the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard by off-duty police officer Wayne Couzens in London, physically maps the harassment of women in the town.
One, Lily-Rose, 26, told the grassroots project that she was taking money from a cash machine in Corporation Street when she saw “some men putting flags up”.
“They shouted over to me, asking how old I was and if I was single,” she reported.
“I told them, ‘No’ and asked if they had anything better to do with their time.
“They then surrounded me, backed me up against (the) NatWest wall to harass and question me on why ‘I’m not proud to be British’.”
Reclaim said at the time that the far-right “claims to care about women’s safety” but the “plain truth is they are weaponising it to spread racism and hate”.
It said two in five people arrested nationally over the Southport riots had been reported for domestic violence, citing police data released under freedom of information laws, adding: “The call is coming from inside the house!”
Roger Haywood, then 41 and of Yew Tree Road on the Grange Park estate, rocketed to infamy as “Dad 1” during the disorder in Blackpool, when he was seen roaming around town antagonising police and riling up fellow protesters.
When he was sentenced to 30 months behind bars, the court was told of his previous convictions, including for violence, being drunk and disorderly and stalking.
Seven women recently told The Guardian that they had suffered violence at the hands of key figures in the anti-immigration street patrol movement nationally.
It named Reece McCarron, who founded The Corby Guard vigilante group after seeing someone “making advances to a young girl on the way from school”, and was reportedly accused - before charges were dropped after support for prosecution was withdrawn by the alleged victim - of breaking into his ex’s house, swinging a machete and threatening to kill her.
He was later convicted of coercive control, with his trial told his victim was “very scared he would kill her. She couldn’t sleep for weeks.”
The publication also cited the case of Jamie Thomason, who set up the Heywood Community Guard in Greater Manchester, claiming he was “doing God’s work” protecting women and children - despite being convicted in 2018 for turning up at a former partner’s home, banging on her door and threatening to cut her throat.
Izzy Durose, 25, is a co-organiser at Reclaim and has been involved since 2021.
She told The Blackpool Lead: “It seems like these groups only care about speaking about women and girls to use them as pawns to push other agendas.
“The irony is not lost on us that, as a message, (protecting women and girls) is only used when there are ulterior motives, whether it’s about immigration or trans rights issues.