ANTI-RACISM campaigners mobilised in Llanelli in Wales and in the Yorkshire coastal town of Scarborough on Saturday to counter far-right protesters.

A bedraggled group of about 30 racists from the Yorkshire Patriot group staged an anti-immigrant protest but were heavily outnumbered by about 80 anti-racist counter protesters.

A spokesperson for Stand Up to Racism (SUTR), which organised the counter protest, said: “The racists were a real rag-tag bunch. They looked very miserable.”

Steve Day, a member of bakers’ union BFAWU and supporter of Scarborough SUTR praised the turn-out of anti-racism campaigners despite the thunderstorm and heavy rains.

“The racists were organised by the Yorkshire Patriots but they were not from Scarborough — we would have recognised them,” he said.

“They even had banners from Cornwall and the Midlands.”

In Llanelli, about 140 anti-immigrant protesters outnumbered anti-racism counter-protesters.

The racists targeted a hotel which is to house refugees and asylum-seekers waiting for decisions on their fate.

The protest was organised by far-right group Voice of Wales and supported by Britain First and Ukip.

They blocked the entrance to the empty 77-bedroom Stradey Park Hotel and have also set up a weekend camp at the hotel’s entrance.

SUTR said that racist campaigners had been spreading lies in the town about refugees being dangerous criminals and that the hotel would house “young men of fighting age” — a myth regularly peddled by the far right in communities across Britain

“Unfortunately they have gained some support,” a spokesperson for the campaign group said.