Belfast violence outrageous, says far-right campaigner

I put it to Mr Dowson that immigrants were not to blame for housing shortages in Northern Ireland or pressures on the health service and he could be accused of dog whistling for racism.

He said Northern Ireland was “slightly different” and “we don’t have a lot of immigrants”.

“I don’t think you can ever point to an example where I’ve been saying Northern Ireland’s under this terrible pressure because of mass immigration.”

Business owners whose shops and livelihoods were destroyed over the weekend in Belfast, have questioned whether they wish to reopen.

Mr Dowson suggested the disorder was stoked by social media posts, to which I challenged if he was being hypocritical for his own past use of social media.

He said: “I used social media very effectively in the flag protests because it was something I cared passionately about and still do and I think if it had been played different we could have won a victory there. But that’s a big difference from inciting people.”

Mr Dowson said he had never expressed concern about immigration levels in Northern Ireland and claimed the issue was bigger in England and the Republic of Ireland.