'Engagement can save lives and change minds'

A PROMINENT councillor has called for "grownup conversations" to help mend divisions in North East communities, after anti-migrant protesters and counter demonstrators faced off in Newcastle over the weekend.

- DANIEL HOLLAND

Hundreds of people gathered in Newcastle city centre on Saturday afternoon, with a protest taking place over the use of a hotel as asylum seeker accommodation.

Individuals claiming to be “patriots” joined an event advertised online by the Great British National Protest group, while a counter protest organised by Newcastle Unites and Stand Up To Racism was held close to the nearby Laing Art Gallery. It came on the same day as similar demonstrations in Manchester and London, and in the wake of violent scenes outside an asylum hotel in Essex over recent weeks.