Ellie Goulding has said that anti-migrant protesters amassing outside hotels used to house asylum seekers make her ’embarrassed to be British’ as she accused them of ‘using immigration as an excuse to be appalling’.
The singer, 38, took to Instagram on Wednesday and shared a photo of one protest, adding the caption: ‘Embarrassed to be a Brit right now.’
It comes amid a wave of anti-migrant sentiment in some British communities that is bitterly dividing the country and causing tensions across the UK to rise.
Writing on Instagram, Goulding continued: ‘They say it’s for the ‘women and children’.
‘I’m a pretty tough girl but when I think about the times I’ve been intimidated in London or anywhere else in [the] UK, whether on the tube/train or walking with friends late at night, it involves those kinds of British men either after a night at the pub, post boxing or football match.
‘Stop using immigration as an excuse to be appalling and if you really want to stand up for this beautiful country go and get a National Trust membership for real.’
Protests in towns and cities across the UK have sparked controversy in recent days and weeks, with some demonstrators filmed screaming racist abuse, arrested for attempting to storm hotels housing asylum seekers and chasing journalists.
Matters came to a head after Epping Forest District Council won an initial court ruling to evict asylum seekers from a hotel.
Ellie Goulding, 38, has become the latest celebrity to wade into the row over hotels housing asylum seekers, saying anti-migrant protests make her feel ashamed
Ellie Goulding has said on Instagram that anti-migrant protesters amassing outside hotels used to house asylum seekers make her ’embarrassed to be British’
Anti-migrant protesters (pictured) hold a demonstration outside the Thistle Hotel in Swindon on Saturday
Goulding has been outspoken in her support for refugees in recent years, and visited a refugee camp in Jordan in 2023, speaking out in support of those displaced by war in Syria.
She said at the time: ‘To be a refugee is often to experience trauma, a removal of identity and the erasure of culture. It’s an existence that leaves little room for dreams.’
She has also previously performed at global summits on human rights and climate change.
The latest protests came after violent demonstrations ignited after a migrant at the hotel was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl just days after arriving in Britain illegally.
But after an appeal from the government, the High Court overturned the ruling, sparking anger in the local community and further afield.
On Saturday, five people were arrested after a group of masked men tried to storm the Crowne Hotel in West Drayton, damaging security measures.
The Met Police said officers were already at the hotel and called for more support to stop the men breaking in.
A separate group then made their way towards a nearby Novotel on Cherry Lane, while another group moved towards a Holiday Inn. Three people were arrested and cordons were put in place in the surrounding area.
A protester displays a tattoo of Tommy Robinson on her arm as rival protest groups clash outside the New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle on Saturday
Crowds of anti-migrant demonstrators holding English flags and Union Jacks gather outside the Crowne Plaza hotel in West Drayton on Saturday
In the unedifying scene, two women with children in tow as yelled vile obscenities at a local businessman, who, unbeknownst to them, had lived in Nuneaton for 26 years
As Mr Gelu was talking, one of the women shouted ‘you’re raping our children’ to which he could be heard asking the woman ‘What you teaching them kids?’
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Two officers suffered minor injuries, the force said.
Then in Nuneaton, two women interrupted a Sky News interview to scream racist abuse at the interviewee.
Zahin Gelu, who has lived in the UK since he was six years old, was speaking to a journalist when the two women, one of whom was holding a pint, came out of Wetherspoons with children in tow and interrupted.
‘Dirty monkey,’ one yelled at him before her female friend joined in, telling the interviewee to ‘go back to his own country’ – oblivious to the fact that the Midlands town has been his home for more than 26 years.
The other screamed: ‘That’s the issue we’re having with youse (sic) in our country, you’re raping our kids.’
Police have arrested two women on suspicion of a public order offence – although Mr Gelu is not pressing charges.
In a separate incident on Saturday, a pair of BBC journalists were hounded away from a protest in Portsmouth outside the Royal Beach Hotel.
The demonstrations show no sign of stopping, despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer repeatedly attempting to calm matters by pledging to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
Counter-protesters supporting groups including Stand Up To Racism typically turn up too, meaning a large-scale police presence is often needed to keep the two sides separate.
In a bid to stop the scenes, which are increasingly turning violent, at least 19 councils have vowed to pursue legal action to try and kick asylum seekers out of local hotels.
This includes at least four Labour-run authorities, as well as all 12 controlled by Reform UK.
Protesters outside the Bell Hotel in Epping last week amid a legal battle over whether it can continue to house asylum seekers
Protesters march towards the Bell Hotel, waving England flags and Union Jacks
A masked man faces off with a police officer in Cheshunt outside a hotel believed to house migrants last week
Anti-immigration protesters and police officers are pictured in Cheshunt on Friday
On Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer wrote on X: ‘I want to see every asylum hotel closed.’
The government has also pledged to speed up efforts to achieve this goal – but for some communities it simply isn’t enough.
The government has previously argued that the need to protect the human rights of asylum seekers by housing them in hotels, outweighed the safety concerns of local families.
However, MPs and the local council reacted furiously to the decision to keep housing asylum seekers in Epping, with Reform leader Nigel Farage saying illegal migrants now had more rights than Britons under Sir Keir Starmer.
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch also accused the prime minister of ‘putting the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British people’.
It comes as former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said the Government was right to take the Epping case to the Court of Appeal but said people wanted action to close asylum hotels.
He rejected suggestions that the UK may have to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights to be able to efficiently remove people with no right to be in the country.
Lord Falconer, who served under former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: ‘We’ve obviously got to move forward in relation to closing the hotels and also stopping the crossings.’
