Liverpool vs UKIP: Round 2

Dear readers — welcome to your Monday edition, with plenty of juicy titbits, cultural picks and our big story: UKIP’s attempted demonstration from the Metropolitan cathedral to the Pier Head. Did the increasingly far-right group achieve what they failed to last summer and march through the city? Read on to find out. 

Before we take you through today’s news, did you manage to check out our weekend read? 

The Killing Fields of Wirral

Has the lost location of Britain’s bloodiest-ever battle been found?

The PostDavid Lloyd

If you can resist the prospect of Dave Lloyd writing about a Viking battle — and why would you? — you’re welcome to Post HQ anytime to teach Laurence the ascetic discipline to stop eating all the chocolate hobnobs.

And speaking of real-life meet-ups, did you know that we’re hosting an event at Cafe Tabac? One of our loveliest culture writers Melissa Blease will be interviewing photographer Francesco Mellina whose exhibition captures Pete Burns and Dead or Alive in their earliest years. There’ll also be a Q&A and a chance to chat over drinks afterwards. Get your tickets here and we’ll see you at Cafe Tabac on Bold Street on Tuesday 14th April at 6:30pm. 

Hello! Laurence here. I really hope you find today’s edition informative and entertaining. To keep abreast of all the latest news in Liverpool and Merseyside, why not sign up for our free newsletter? No credit card details required — just click below, enter your email address and you’ll get two completely free editions in your inbox per week. You’ll also be helping support what we do just by signing up and spreading the word. 

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A note on Answers in The Post

Between Abi’s LIPA Schools digging and Ahab-esque pursuit of Colette Goulding, and Laurence’s wistful North Wales journeys and quests to recover missing grave stones, our Answers in The Post format has fallen by the wayside lately. 

Just a reminder, or an explainer for newbies: AiTP is your chance to use The Post like your own personal journalistic sniper rifle. Just pick a topic you’d like us to look into and sell it to us in an email (editor@livpost.co.uk) or comment.

Your Post briefing

A member of Liverpool band The Zutons was the victim of a “racially” motivated attack over the weekend. Boyan Chowdhury suffered a serious head injury after being attacked near Fieldway on Saturday afternoon. In a social media post, he says he was called a “p****, sand ni**** and a dirty arab” by a gang of men, before being hit over the head by what he believed to be a piece of wood. He was taken to hospital for treatment, and the police are now appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

The company behind the Stanlow oil refinery at Ellesmere Port has admitted to breaking environmental protection rules nearly 500 times in just two years. Between 2018 and 2020, Essar allowed the discharge of chemicals into the nearby Manchester Ship Canal, as well as four cases of discharging high levels of cyanide into a nearby river and brook. In total, Essar pled guilty to 12 charges, with the case due to be heard again in July at Warrington Magistrates’ Court. A spokesperson for Essar said “there were no reports of environmental contamination, or impact on wildlife during the time of these breaches." Know any more about this? Email abi@livpost.co.uk. 

And the man responsible for an “almost apocalyptic” gas explosion in New Ferry has died. Back in 2017, Pascal Blasio was jailed for attempting to blow up his own business in the town centre as part of an insurance scam. The blast was so strong that it was heard up to five miles away, and ended up destroying an entire precinct of shops, injuring 81 people. The Prison Service is now investigating his death, which occurred in HMP Rochester in Kent on 28 February.

The big story: UKIP’s “Walk with Jesus” rally is more of a waddle

Top line: The far-right planned to march from the Metropolitan Cathedral. Could counter-demonstrators stop them again?

Context: Last August, UKIP leader Nick Tenconi attempted to lead a march through Liverpool. The demonstrators fared little better than the far-right National Action group eleven years before, who were famously trapped in the luggage claim in Lime Street Station when dozens of counter protesters showed up to egg and punch them. The UKIPers were penned in by anti-racist and anti-fascist activists, and barely got further than the plaza outside St George’s. Tenconi was captured fuming at the police in videos that were gleefully uploaded to social media.

In addition, this time, Tenconi changed his tactics. Instead of beginning at or near the train station, the UKIP leader planned Saturday’s march to start from the plaza outside the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral. 

This new location allowed him three advantages: ready access to the city centre, as pinning down individuals or small groups from making their way up Mount Pleasant or Hope Street is much harder for counter-protesters or police than larger gatherings; tying UKIP’s intentions to a specifically “Christian West” identity politics; and crying hypocrisy if the local diocese decided to denounce the march, as this is exactly where pro-Palestine demonstrations met every Sunday during Israel’s actions in the war on Gaza. 

That’s exactly what local faith leaders did. Monsignor Anthony O’Brien, Dean of the Metropolitan Cathedral — the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese — issued a statement earlier this month stating the cathedral has not given permission for the piazza to be used and that “there is no place for prejudice, racism or bigotry” in the Church. 

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The Anglican Diocese agreed with Monsignor O’Brien, stating “clearly and unequivocally” that the march had been organised “independently of the recognised Christian community on Merseyside.” The latter statement was also signed by a number of faith leaders outside of mainstream Anglicanism, including Methodists and Evangelicals. 

In the secular world, a “Liverpool Unity Statement” supporting Stand Up to Racism’s counter-protest in advance was signed by trade unions like the NEU and PCS; councillors including leader Liam Robinson and independents such as Lucy Williams, Sam Gorst and Alan Gibbons; and local MPs Paula Barker, Kim Johnson and Ian Byrne. 

Who is Nick Tanconi? Readers who remember UKIP as an effective anti-immigration party under Nigel Farage might be surprised to see this kind of response from church leaders, trade unions and antifascists. But since Farage’s Reform stole its thunder as the country’s dominant hard-right party, UKIP has realigned itself to a more identarian political ethos. This shift is visualised by the party’s attempt to change its logo: from an innocuous pound sign in 2022 to a rather more threatening Templar Cross and spear in 2026:

Part of that realignment with Christian Nationalist politics has been the leadership. Nick Tenconi is the chief operating officer of Turning Point UK, the pressure group launched by the now-murdered right-wing US activist Charlie Kirk in 2018. But Tenconi’s social media videos lack the slickness of Turning Point’s American equivalents; his delivery, usually directly into a camera, is pompously messianic, with plenty of eye-closing when God or religion are mentioned. 

So what happened on Saturday? Like with previous demonstrations, the UKIP march did not get much further than its starting point. The few dozen marchers that showed up were heavily outnumbered by counter-protesters. Celebrity right-wing agitator “Young Bob” AKA Thomas Moffitt took to social media to complain that UKIP supporters were “completely surrounded by opposing protesters”, while self-styled bodyguard Fred Willis AKA “Fred CPO” was dragged to the ground in a scuffle quickly broken up by police. Before the protest even began, far-right demonstrator Ryan Ferguson was pulled over and arrested by Merseyside Police for breaking bail conditions. 

Tenconi himself was reported to have only made a brief appearance before his supporters were escorted by police to Lime Street Station. He again took to social media to proclaim that Merseyside Police were “an absolute disgrace” for not using horses and batons on the counter-protesters. 

A spokesperson for Stand Up to Racism Merseyside told The Post that UKIP were “humiliated and defeated in Liverpool”. The counter protesters numbered “1,000-1,500”, while Tenconi’s group only managed “about 60”. 

“Liverpool is a city built by people of many faiths and none,” the spokesperson said, addressing Tenconi’s attempt to evoke Christian identity politics. “We demonstrated that Fascists and the far-right will be robustly opposed.”

Bottom line: Anti-fascist groups such as Stand Up to Racism and Searchlight can count this counter-demo as another victory over far-right agitators, but in the past these incidents have also led to hubris over Liverpool’s “left-wing” exceptionalism. The city enjoyed no immunity from the anti-immigrant riots that swept the nation’s cities following the Southport murders in 2024. Since then, the city centre has also hosted an anti-migrant protest outside the Richmond Hotel on Hatton Garden. Nevertheless, the fact religious leaders, city councillors from multiple parties and trade union groups came together on Saturday will be seen as a positive display of unity. 

Photo of the week

Always a fan of food-based puns, this takeaway in Warrington made Abi smile over the weekend. Luke, if you’re reading this — what are you playing at? Wok’s Cooking is waiting for you.

To help Abi get through a week of rifling around Companies House, looking for discrepancies in financial statements, send over your favourite Merseyside restaurants with puns for names. We might compile a list ranking our favourites…

Got a photo to share? Email editor@livpost.co.uk for a chance to be featured in our Monday briefings. 

Post Picks

🎭This week is the Unity Theatre’s Up Next Festival — a full week of performance, workshops and networking. A listing for all the events taking place has been posted on their website — it’s a great chance to sample some local talent and learn from some of the region’s best playwrights, actors and creatives.

🎹On Friday, pianist Neil Brand will celebrate the centenary of Laurel and Hardy with a new show. Thanks to new restorations of their silent films, Neil will bring them to life with live piano improvisations, featuring extended scenes from You're Darn Tootin, The Finishing Touch and The Second Hundred Years. Held at the Tung Auditorium, tickets are £23.50 — buy one here.

📽️Also on Friday: Kitty’s Laundrette is hosting a viewing of the first ever Irish language film shot on camera — 1978’s Poitin. The film follows the story of moonshiner Michil, who lives a quiet life with his daughter on a remote farm. He relies on some questionable folk to get his black market wares to the people, but they plan to double-cross him. Grab a ticket here.

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Recommended reads

The culinary comeback of jacket potatoes was a major feature in the New York Times over the weekend. We admit — we’re partial to a spud-from-a-van. If things don’t work out for us as journalists, you know where you’ll find us instead. All jesting aside — while this was a rather odd story about the US’s hyper fixation on a British trend, it made us laugh.

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