Essex Police say claims by Nigel Farage that officers bussed in counter-demonstrators to migrant hotel protest are 'categorically wrong'

Essex Police has powerfully denied claims by Nigel Farage it "bussed" counter-demonstrators to a protestation extracurricular a migrant edifice successful Epping.

The Reform UK person had called for the force's main constable to resign implicit the accusations.

In a video posted connected X connected Wednesday morning, the Clacton MP said: "This video proves @EssexPoliceUK transported left-wing protesters to The Bell Hotel successful Epping. There is nary mode Chief Constable BJ Harrington tin enactment successful position."

He showed footage of radical successful a constabulary van and said the unit had "bussed" them to protests extracurricular a edifice successful Epping, Essex, utilized to location asylum seekers past week.

More than 1,000 radical gathered extracurricular The Bell Hotel successful protests implicit 2 nights past week aft an asylum seeker was arrested and charged connected suspicion of alleged intersexual assaults successful the town.

Essex Police released a connection hours aft Mr Farage's video, refuting his claims.

"There are claims connected societal media that Essex Police officers 'bussed' protesters to the protestation extracurricular the Bell Hotel connected Thursday 17 July," the unit said.

"This is categorically wrong.

"Officers did supply a ft cordon astir protesters connected their mode to the protest, wherever they and others were allowed to workout their close to protest.

"Later immoderate radical who were intelligibly astatine hazard of being wounded were besides escorted by conveyance distant from the country for their safety.

"To reiterate, we categorically did not thrust immoderate antagonistic protesters to the tract connected immoderate occasion."

Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington past gave a quality league successful which helium said 10 arrests had been made aft the protests.

"A fig of those radical person been charged, a fig of those radical person been remanded successful custody for superior offences," helium said.

He added radical connected societal media request to "comment responsibly" due to the fact that they tin person "real satellite consequences to the communities of Essex".

Chief Constable Harrington said officers did instrumentality radical distant from the protestation "for their safety, for the information of everyone there, due to the fact that it was the champion operational happening to bash to forestall violence, to defuse the situation, we drove them distant from a convulsive confrontation".

He besides insisted his officers "are being perfectly impartial, policing according to the instrumentality and making definite we enforce the instrumentality and effort to support communities".

"I privation to marque it really, truly clear," helium said.

"If you travel to protestation peacefully and lawfully, past we volition let radical to bash that. It is their antiauthoritarian right. It is their ineligible right.

"If you travel present and perpetrate crime, we volition woody with that robustly. Working with our partners, we volition stitchery the grounds and we volition bring prosecutions due to the fact that that is successful nobody's involvement for radical to get hurt."