A NEONAZI youth group tried to take a highly publicised “white pride” march to the streets of Liverpool on Saturday, but hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators turned them back.

National Action’s plot to make Liverpool “go up in flames” if prevented from marching ended in a damp squib as they were forced to take shelter at Lime Street Station lost property depot.

Members of the Anti-Fascist Network and Unite Against Fascism subjected the dwindling numbers of fascists to a “barrage of projectiles,” including bananas and rotten eggs.

“Liverpool was absolutely magnificent, the humour, the camaraderie, it’s really clear that people now have the confidence to say we have to stand up to this,” Hope Not Hate organiser Matthew Collins told the Star.

“There is no doubt that the far right are nasty and they are nastier than they have been for a long time but let’s not forget that there’s more of us than there are of them.

“I think what happened in Liverpool should lift everyone up — we can defeat these people.”

Merseyside Police only recorded “minor disorder” and made six arrests.

National Action had spent the few weeks prior to their White Man March threatening local politicians including Liverpool’s Labour Mayor Joe Anderson, who called for the event to be cancelled and powers to ban extremist street marches.

In an open letter to the politician, the neonazis suggested that “only bullets will stop us” if he interfered with their “God-given right of public expression and freedom of speech.”

In Walsall, a demonstration planned for 500 supporters of racist street movement the English Defence League turned out to be a small gathering of fewer than 150.

Nine people were arrested during the one-hour walk, including a 30-year-old Walsall man and a 33-year-old woman from Tyne and Wear on suspicion of public offences.

“I think the tide is turning,” said Mr Collins.

“Across the country people are waking up … and people are beginning to say that we are not going to stand for it any more.”