‘Patriotic’ political party Britain First has begun an aggressive campaign against an abandoned campsite in Sherwood Forest, under the belief that it houses a number of illegal immigrants.

The group – whose slogan is “taking our country back” – released a video promoting the protest on their Facebook page yesterday. According to them (as well as some characteristically misguided reporting in the Daily Express), the forest has been “invaded” by migrants who are “chopping down trees”, “killing deer” and “threatening people with knives”.

In the three-minute clip, deputy leader Jayda Fransen is filmed leafleting the area to warn residents of these apparent dangers. “You may have seen reports in the media that migrants have set up illegal camps and within these camps they’ve been causing a huge amount of destruction and disturbance,” she explains. “There’s litter everywhere, they’ve been cutting, hacking at trees, cutting bushes down.”

The film then follows Fransen and other members of the party as they traipse through the peaceful wood without any disturbance. “They’ve got knives and locals have been threatened by these migrants occupying these illegal camps,” she adds. “It really is an issue around here.”

Unfortunately for them, though, a group of friends from Nottingham came forward yesterday to admit that this “illegal migrant camp” was actually just a campsite – and one that they’d built six years before for a friend who was joining the army.

“It was built for such a beautiful reason, with the end of a group of teenagers’ summers together before they went on to begin adult life,” Jessica Rimmington told The Chad shortly after she saw the film. “I think it’s disgusting that someone’s made such a silly story up. There’s many wonderful memories up there for many people and for it be stained by this silly story is horrendous.”

Reporter Nick Charity also attempted to investigate the claims, but was unable to see any signs of a migrant camp in the forest. According to him, the only evidence was a few leftover signs of people “drinking and camping” in the woods.

“We have already written numerous stories refuting the initial claim – but we understand that Britain First are deleting comments on their Facebook from people correcting them,” he said. “I rather like the idea that Britain First have spent the time since wondering around the woods, looking for a band of migrants that isn’t there.”