Hundreds of protesters descended on Totnes last weekend as part of a worldwide demonstration against Covid rules.

Similar simultaneous ‘freedom protests’ took place across the UK and the rest of Europe - from Manchester and London to Sweden and Ukraine.

The global event description calls for an end to mask mandates, vaccine passports and says lives have been damaged more by restrictions than by the virus.

In the UK alone, more than 150,000 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid.

Studies have found the Covid booster vaccine is 88 per cent effective at keeping people form hospitalisation with the Omicron variant.

The event kicked off with a rally at the Rotherfold, followed by a march through the high street to Steamer Quay to hear speeches by among others, local artist, Jason Liosatos, who Hope not Hate (a UK-based advocacy group campaigning against racism and fascism) says holds “deeply antisemitic views”.

The rally was criticised by town mayor, Cllr Ben Piper who hailed it “a platform to normalise antisocial fear mongering and a toxic far right agenda.”

Dr Hopwood insisted the march “clearly demonstrated that all sorts of people are waking up to the lies from the Government and media and the so-called scientific institutions, and are no longer prepared to be coerced and forced into being experimented upon with toxic drugs”

He added: “The well attended and vocal march was another success for the ‘corruption whistleblowers’ coming together in increasing numbers to stand for our unalienable rights and freedom from the global governments clearly now totalitarian agendas.”

Cllr Piper said: “I think I speak for the vast majority of our community when I say that the news that the so-called ‘Freedom Alliance’ has once again targeted our town for one of their actions is not particularly welcome.

“At this time when the right to legitimate protest has never been so contested, having these bad actors utilising peoples’ goodwill to further their extremist agenda is not only tragic but also deeply insulting.

“There is clearly a legitimate debate to be had around issues of efficacy, dangers and consent in relation to the health emergency - it is absolutely not helpful to invite anti-semitic holocaust deniers, Q pedo-lizard advocates, and especially in a town that has stepped up so courageously, climate change sceptics.

“This is not an honest attempt at debate but rather seeking a platform to normalise antisocial fear mongering and a toxic far right agenda.

“Time has shown that virtually all the fears peddled by this group have failed to materialise and yet the campaign to destabilise democracy goes on - this is the same movement that wound up with five people dead at the US Capitol.”

Referring to the rally held by the group in Totnes last November, Cllr Piper said: “That this is not an honest movement is absolutely demonstrated by their attempt to ‘steal the clothes’ of legitimate protest tactics - the reality of the rally and march in comparison to promises reveals there were no marching bands -street theatre-or poets extant - even the ‘Worldwide.demonstration.com’ (see publicity if you don’t believe me!) placards were really disappointing…

“What there were, though, were five coach loads of extremists - heckling in the street, intimidation and people having masks ripped from their faces.

“These are not the values of this diverse community and I hope the members of this community who support them will step back and take a hard look at what is being sold to the wider world in our name?”