{"id":2223802,"date":"2026-10-27T12:47:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2223802"},"modified":"2026-10-27T12:47:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:47:31","slug":"ex-britain-first-leader-arrested-in-hmo-attacks-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2223802","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Britain First leader arrested in HMO attacks investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/b939\/live\/54da6610-d203-11f1-b441-2b33b063138f.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ashlea Simon said she was arrested after her social media posts visiting HMOs in Salford<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The former co-leader of the far-right Britain First party has said she was arrested as part of an investigation into attacks on houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a post on X, Ashlea Simon said she had been held at Manchester Airport after “returning from a family holiday”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said a 37-year-old woman had been arrested on suspicion of “conspiracy to cause criminal damage”, following a spate of incidents in which HMOs were vandalised across the Greater Manchester region. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Simon, who said in her post that she “hasn’t committed a crime in her life”, was approached for comment by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In the post, Simon said she believed the arrest was linked to a series of videos she has made since July.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In them, she claimed to identify several HMOs in her hometown of Walkden, Salford. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a previous video shared by Simon in recent days, she said police had “raided” her home while she was on holiday and she was aware of an “arrest warrant”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Simon left Britain First two years ago, and is now the leader of a “pro-English” activism group. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The news of her arrest came amid a major investigation into a number of vandalism attacks across Salford, Tameside, and Stockport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Police are investigating about 50 incidents in which HMOs and family homes have been vandalised and cars targeted. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In one incident, a pig’s head was left outside a home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Five men have been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage and conspiracy to cause criminal damage as part of the investigation, along with a 13-year-old boy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Friday, Ch Supt Marcus Noden said officers “suspect vulnerable people are being exploited and paid to damage buildings they believe are HMOs”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Some of those being exploited are believed to be children and this is just one line of enquiry that we are pursuing,” he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to the best of <\/i>BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds<\/i> and follow BBC Manchester on <\/i>Facebook<\/i>, <\/i>X<\/i>, and <\/i>Instagram<\/i>. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c3x2wrpr47njo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/b939\/live\/54da6610-d203-11f1-b441-2b33b063138f.jpg”] Getty Images Ashlea Simon said she was arrested after her social media posts visiting HMOs in Salford The former co-leader of the far-right Britain First party has said she was arrested as part of an investigation into attacks on houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). In a post on X, Ashlea Simon said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2223802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2223802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2223802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2223802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2223802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}