Tommy Robinson ‘free speech’ rally attracts more than 100,000 in London
More than 100,000 people have gathered in London for a “free speech” rally spearheaded by Tommy Robinson.
The Metropolitan Police said it estimated around 110,000 were in Whitehall for the “Unite the Kingdom” event based on CCTV and police helicopter footage, amid claims from Robinson’s supporters of three million people there.
A sea of flags could be seen in the crowd including the St George’s Cross, the Union flag, the Scottish saltire and Welsh dragon with others carrying wooden crosses with “Christ” written on and singing Christian songs.
But attendees were also seen fleeing for the cover of trees after heavy rain battered a stage where speakers including actor turned activist Laurence Fox addressed the crowd.
‘Fight back’
Chants in support of Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, could be heard alongside “f*** Keir Starmer” and “Keir Starmer is a wanker” but police said there had been no incidents of note as the protesters marched from near Waterloo to the south side of Whitehall.
Meanwhile, a counter-protest, dubbed March Against Fascism, organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) is also taking place in London on the north side of Whitehall, with around 5,000 people attending, according to Met estimates.
The crowd chanted “stand up, fight back” and “we are the women, we won’t be silenced, stop the fascists now, now, now, now” as they marched from Russell Square towards Parliament.
Revolution
Robinson said the “revolution is on” in a video posted to X where he claimed his Unite the Kingdom protest was the largest demonstration in British history.
The far-right activist told his followers that London was full of “patriots” before saying “the spark has started, the revolution is on”.
Both demonstrations are separated by barriers with a “sterile area” to minimise the risk of clashes between the groups.
Robinson has called on attendees of his rally to not wear masks, drink alcohol or be violent.
‘Assaulted’
Strict conditions have been imposed under the Public Order Act on where and when campaigners can protest, the Met said, with the SUTR event ending at 4pm and the Unite the Kingdom event finishing at 6pm.
More than 1,600 officers have been deployed in total across the city, with 500 brought in from other forces, the Metropolitan Police said.
The two groups were divided by a line of police officers on Whitehall, one side waving placards that said “refugees welcome. Stop the far right” and the other flying Union and St George’s flags.
The force, which was attempting to keep the two groups apart, said: “Officers are having to intervene in multiple locations to stop Unite the Kingdom protesters trying to access sterile areas, breach police cordons or get to opposing groups.
“A number of officers have been assaulted.”
Earlier it said its officers had also been “attacked with projectiles and have had to use force to avoid their cordon being breached”.
Police took out their batons at around 4.25pm as they continued to try and push back thousands of Robinson supporters gathered on the top of Whitehall and Trafalgar Square.
Beer cans were thrown and an officer was seen trying to stamp out a flare in the metres-wide gap between the two protest groups on Whitehall.
As trouble flared, the “Unite” protest featured speeches on a stage in Whitehall from Robinson and other activists including former actor Lawrence Fox, former Apprentice candidate Katie Hopkins along with musical performers and a group of bare-chested members of the Destiny Church in New Zealand performing a haka.
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“Robinson said the “revolution is on” in a video posted to X where he claimed his Unite the Kingdom protest was the largest demonstration in British history”….er didnt one and a half million people march against the Iraq war in London in 2003? And this was after almost a million marched against plans to attack Iraq a few months earlier. While marches against the poll tax and against pit closures in the early 90s drew around 200,000 each. Marches against the Vietnam war and anti-trade union legislation also drew vast numbers in the 60s and early 70’s.
The politics of division is well and truly back and unless it is curtailed somehow we will end up like the Germany of the 1930s. There the great depression led to the rise of far right policies that blamed others just as what’s happening today. We may say, – ah, things are different now – but are they really? History does repeat itself when we forget the horrors associated. Britain has generally turned it’s back on this sort of far right rhetoric, the BNP were in the fringes for years, now it’s time for the country to do so again… Read more »
Silence from no 10. Don’t upset trump. Meanwhile reforms favourite nazi, musk, calls for insurrection at this event. Fascist are calling the shots in the UK.
Hey, labour MP’s reading this, find starmers spine. And find your own.
The numbers of arrests and participants when compared to the Palestine figures are stark and worrisome…
Hopefully they all kept their mobile phones on them and got themselves pinged on lots of facial recognition cameras.
It makes it so much easier for the police to catch up with them at a later date.