Busloads of far-right demonstrators are feared to be planning to travel hundreds of miles to “defend” memorials at the weekend, campaigners have said. There are concerns that hundreds are mobilising to attend a “patriotic unity” event at Winston Churchill’s statue in Westminster on Saturday morning, in response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. The far-right activist Tommy Robinson and political group Britain First are among those supporting a “defend our memorials” event, which is being publicised with pictures of “Churchill is a racist” graffiti that was daubed on the statue last Sunday. One campaign group, Hope Not Hate, said that sometimes planned far-right protests fail to materialise – but on this occasion coaches had been booked to take demonstrators from as far afield as north-east England, which until last week had the second-highest rate of coronavirus infections in England. Joe Mulhall, from Hope Not Hate, said that “this time the police need to take the danger seriously” and warned of the potential for conflict on the streets if BLM protesters or other anti-facist groups turned up to launch a counter-demonstration. Police sources said that the Met would decide how it would respond over the next 24 hours, including whether to let the event go ahead as billed. A spokesperson for the force added: “We’re aware of a number of protests due to take place.” Some fear that police could be put in the difficult situation of having to keep two sets of protesters apart while trying to maintain public order. Tim Newburn, professor of criminology at the London School of Economics, said: “That could become extremely problematic, because what happens is that the police start to look like they are protecting the smaller of the two groups, which is likely to be the far right.” Saturday’s Churchill statue protest is nominally organised by the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA), a loose network that emerged in response to the 2017 terrorist attacks in Britain, which has been condemned as a far-right group by anti-racism campaigners. Earlier on, its two biggest marches attracted more than 10,000 people. The group was thought to have lost momentum until it was reignited by recent events. Far-right groups online have rapidly become agitated by the BLM protests, reaching a tipping point on Sunday and Monday after images were shared on social media of the tagging of Churchill’s statue – and the effort by one demonstrator to try to set fire to the flags on the Cenotaph on nearby Whitehall. Figureheads such as Robinson and the Britain First leader, Paul Golding, produced videos shared on lightly regulated social media networks such as Telegram or the Russian-owned VK, angrily complaining that police had lost their grip on the BLM protesters on Sunday afternoon and evening. The growing tensions prompted a standoff in the Hertfordshire town of Hoddesdon on Monday, where a group made Nazi salutes and shouted: “Why don’t you go back to Africa?” at a BLM protest as they converged in the afternoon. Small groups have gathered elsewhere, such outside the cenotaph in Hull on Wednesday. Other far-right campaigners have urged people not just to focus on London on Saturday. One called for activists to gather at other monuments associated with slavery being targeted by BLM campaigners from Dundee to Plymouth. Britain’s fractious far right has been dominated by anti-Muslim sentiment in recent years, led by the likes of Robinson who have claimed they are cultural nationalists. Experts said that, in recent days, this sentiment had morphed into more explicit anti-black racism. “Elements of the far right have long pretended they don’t care about race, focusing on culture and religion instead,” Mulhall said. “But they have now let the mask slip and are openly talking about whiteness and race again.” One politician also called for football clubs to condemn the DFLA and the planned demonstration. Unmesh Desai, the Labour London assembly spokesman for policing and crime, has written to all professional football clubs based in London to ask them to condemn the planned protest. “I now urge your club to use its widespread influence and publicly denounce the plans of the DFLA and other far-right groups to disrupt and attempt to sabotage the BLM protests.”