A CONTROVERSIAL talk by Katie Hopkins was cancelled after over a hundred protesters gathered to call for “no hate speech” in their town.

The outspoken former The Apprentice contestant and columnist was due to give a talk at the Lewes Speakers festival at 6.45pm on Saturday night.

Activists said they felt they had “done their job” by causing her talk about her new book, Rude, to be cancelled, saying they condemned her “hateful” views.

Protester Andrew Chitty, a philosophy lecturer at the University of Sussex, said: “I think it is quite shameful that Katie Hopkins has been invited to speak here.

“Someone who describes refugees as cockroaches is someone who really should not be invited to talk at a speaker’s festival.

“They have invited someone to basically spew hate speech and that is why I am here to protest against it."

Protesters said that Hopkins had been spotted in the town after they met at All Saints Centre in Friars Walk for the demonstration.

They chanted “no hate no fear refugees are welcome here” and “shame on the council” as many felt Lewes Town Council should not have allowed the talk to go ahead.

Another demonstrator, who asked not to be named, said: “I live in this area and what I don’t like is someone like her with the vindictive rhetoric that she peddles coming to my area in a council building where she shouldn’t be able to speak."

Katie Hopkins has forged a career based on her right-wing controversial views, condemning migrants, Muslims, obese people and the working class.

Earlier in the evening Hopkins tweeted: “My jolly protesters have put blood on the Church in Lewes. Giving the rather unfortunate impression my Tampax has gone astray #RUDE.”

She tweeted again at around 7pm, saying: “Protestors in Lewes. Please be clear. I have left the building. Please disperse peacefully. My thanks to @sussex_police.”

Police officers at the protest said she had left the building and that her talk was cancelled due to concerns for her safety.