“It’s an invasion,” Dinah Bentley tells me, standing next to a cardboard cut-out of Nigel Farage.

The 78-year-old retired teacher says she “doesn’t laud” the Reform MP, whose grinning likeness is a permanent fixture in her West Yorkshire conservatory, but he “says what I believe”.

“Everybody talks about migration, but our country’s ruined,” Dinah adds. “They’ve ruined it.”

The “they” in her mind? People who have crossed into the UK on small boats.

We have seen asylum hotel protests intensify over the summer and wanted to speak to the people who’ve joined them.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll speak with counter-protesters too, but today, we meet Dinah, a grandmother of two who has joined those calling on asylum hotels to close.

She was, like many of the protesters we met, initially sceptical to speak to a journalist.

Dinah says she “doesn’t watch mainstream news” because of “media lies” over Brexit.

Instead, she says she gets her news from social media.

It was on social media that Dinah learnt about a protest being organised outside a hotel in Wakefield, which has housed asylum seekers for several years.

It was the first migration-related protest she had ever attended.

“We’ve put up with so much for so long and I think ordinary people now, they’ve decided it’s no good sitting, doing nothing,” Dinah says.

After reading about a male asylum seeker being charged with a sexual assault in Epping, she says she is “fearful” for her granddaughters’ safety.

“They’re undocumented,” she says, referring to those who have arrived in the UK on small boats.

“We know nothing about them. We don’t know where they are wandering the streets. It’s not right, is it?”

She’s also angry about the cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels.

I ask Dinah what she thinks about the government plan to close asylum hotels, stop illegal crossings and deport people who do not have a legal right to remain.

“It’s all talk, all talk”, she says. “I don’t believe them.”

“I would be happy if the Navy went into the Channel, we’re an island for God’s sake, and stopped the boats.

“That would make me over the moon.”

Dinah tells us people used to be “afraid” of saying what they really thought about migration.

No more, she says.

The ‘migrant watch’ group

On the other side of Wakefield, we meet 47-year-old James Crashley.

He’s also been to the local asylum hotel protests.

An army veteran and former policeman, James says he does not think asylum seekers should be housed in hotels or houses of multiple occupancy.

“I’ve served in Kosovo and in Iraq, within the British Army,” he says. “And if I can be housed in a tent for six months, then they can too.”

The prime minister has pledged to end the “costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this parliament” – which would be 2029, if not earlier.

James has, by his own admission, become somewhat notorious in his local area for trying to set up what he’s called a “community watch”.

He says the police are “very good at dealing with serious crime” but believes “they seem to forget that day-to-day crime exists”.

Called “5 Town Migrant Watch” and advertised by him on social media, James says the volunteer group will support the Wakefield hotel protests and act as a “gentle presence” in public areas to tackle “all anti-social behaviour”.

But it will focus on “illegal migrant men” who James describes as having “conflicting traditions and cultures”.

“They come from cultures that aren’t as civilised as ours,” he says. “They don’t seem to adhere to our laws.

“And because of the cultural differences, as in the sexual assaults on children and women, they believe that’s fine in their cultures. Well, it’s not here.”

I say to James that no culture accepts sexual assaults on women and children are “fine”, a point he says he “accepts”.

But he claims that, by definition, people have already “broken the law” when they arrive on small boats in the first place.

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James’ group has attracted hundreds of supporters online, but also criticism from people who believe the group – and James himself – is not only divisive but dangerous.

James admits he has previously had a police caution for a public order offence, not related to the community watch, but stresses this group “isn’t vigilantism”.

“It’s a peaceful movement,” he says. “But if needs be, we’ll stand our ground and will prevent crime. We’re not allowed to commit crime.”

‘People are angry’

A few days later, we meet Dinah again outside the Cedar Court Hotel in Wakefield.

Protesters line the road, waving Union and St George’s flags. Some are shouting “send them back” and “stop the boats”.

Groups of counter-protesters are there too, chanting “Nazi scum” over the police barricade.

I ask Dinah how that feels.

“I think it’s hilarious,” she says. “I know what I am, I don’t value their opinion, so I couldn’t care less what they call me.”

But standing next to Dinah, also waving a Union flag, is Sharon.

She says she’s “a little bit frightened being here” and feels it’s unfair to be put in that position just “to try and get the government to listen to you”.

She added: “I’m a 60-year-old mum. I work 40 hours a week. And nobody gives me anything free. You just want fairness.”

In the crowd, we find James.

I ask him what he thinks about the government plan to appeal a court ruling to shut the asylum hotel in Epping.

“Of course they were going to try and block it,” he tells me.

“The smiles here and the good attitude and the positivity is masking the anger of what’s happened to the English.

“People are angry. People know that once they’re out of here,” he says, gesturing at the hotel behind us, “they’re going to be put in the community”.

“What happens then, who knows?”

Dinah and James are among thousands of protesters who share a sense of being ignored by the government – leaving an overwhelming sense of pressure and uncertainty about what will happen next.

The Russian ambassador to the UK has been summoned by the Foreign Office following attacks on Kyiv overnight.

It comes after the British Council building in the Ukrainian capital suffered major damage in Russian strikes.

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Foreign Secretary David Lammy confirmed the government had summoned Andrey Kelin in response.

Mr Kelin was seen arriving at the Foreign Office building in Whitehall today.

Mr Lammy posted on X: “Putin’s strikes last night killed civilians, destroyed homes and damaged buildings, including the British Council and EU Delegation in Kyiv.

“We have summoned the Russian Ambassador. The killing and destruction must stop.”

The British Council’s chief executive, Scott McDonald, said their guard for the building was injured but “stable”.

“At the insistence of my amazing colleagues, we will continue operations in Ukraine today wherever possible,” he said.

“Their resilience is awe-inspiring, and I am deeply thankful they are all safe.”

Earlier, Sir Keir Starmer said: “My thoughts are with all those affected by the senseless Russian strikes on Kyiv, which have damaged the British Council building.

“Putin is killing children and civilians, and sabotaging hopes of peace. This bloodshed must end.”

The British Council is an arms-length body from the government, and says its mission is to “support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide”.

It facilitates schemes like working, living and learning abroad for British people.

Most of its funding comes from the fees it charges people for its services, but it does also get funding from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

As well as the attack on the British Council building, Russia also targeted the EU delegation building in the Ukrainian capital overnight.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told reporters two missiles hit within 50 metres of the site in 20 seconds.

And Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said the bloc was also summoning Russia’s ambassador following the strike.

“No diplomatic mission should ever be a target,” she said.

The attacks came as part of wider strikes on Kyiv, which destroyed homes and buildings and killed at least 15 people and injured 38, according to Ukrainian officials.

Russia has said it targeted military sites and air bases in its large overnight strike on Ukraine – and that it is still interested in negotiations to meet its aims.

“The special military operation continues,” he said, referring to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which it launched in February 2022.

“You see that strikes on Russian infrastructure facilities are also continuing, and often Russian civilian infrastructure is targeted by the Kyiv regime.”

He added: “At the same time, Russia will maintain its interest in continuing the negotiation process in order to achieve the goals we face through political and diplomatic means.”

Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine has been widely condemned, with Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul saying there must be “consequences”.

“Last night we once again experienced in a terrible way how Russia attacked and bombed Kyiv, civilians died, children died, and the European Union delegation was also attacked,” he told reporters.

“And that cannot remain without consequences.”

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Mr Wadephul added that Germany wanted to show it was considering a further response and that any action would be taken jointly by the EU.

A Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Spokesperson said: “The UK condemns in the strongest terms these outrageous attacks on Ukrainians and the damage done to the British Council and EU Delegation.

“Russia’s increasing attacks on Ukrainian civilians and cities, including Kyiv, are an escalation of the war and deeply irresponsible and are further sabotaging international peace efforts.

“We have made clear to the Russians that such actions will only harden UK and Western resolve to support Ukraine and bring an end to this unjustified war.

“Russia must stop this senseless killing and destruction immediately.”

A former Metropolitan Police volunteer has been found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a child.

James Bubb, who now identifies as a woman named Gwyn Samuels, assaulted the victim multiple times when she was between the ages of 12 and 18.

Jurors were told Bubb, who identified as male at the time of the offences, would be referred to by their biological sex when allegations were being discussed throughout the trial.

Bubb met the victim on a video chat site in 2018, when he was around 21 and she was 12 years old. They then met in person for the first time at a Christian festival a few months later, the court was told.

The trial heard Bubb sexually assaulted the girl in public shortly before her 13th birthday, and that he was violent towards the girl when he raped her in her early teens.

In relation to the complainant, Bubb was on Thursday found guilty of one count of raping a child under 13, one count of sexual activity with a child, one count of assault of a child under 13 by penetration, and one count of assault by penetration.

He was found not guilty of one count of rape and one count of sexual activity with a child in relation to that complainant, and found guilty of one count of rape against a second person.

The defendant made no expression as the verdicts were read out, but sobbed with their head in their hands after the foreman finished speaking.

Bubb, who is now 27, started training with the Met in 2020.

The first victim said the defendant spoke “a lot about the powers he had” in his role as a special constable.

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The second complainant was a woman Bubb met online while posing as a 16-year-old girl.

They met when the woman had just turned 18, and were in an on-off relationship between January 2018 and February 2023.

She said Bubb used “BDSM and kink as a way of creating control” over her, and that he would “use police training techniques” on her.

“The control, the power he got, it sure as hell wasn’t consensual,” she told police.

Bubb, of Chesham, Buckinghamshire, will be sentenced at a later date.