Clashes erupted on Saturday as more than 100,000 people turned out in central London for a rally organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, with police arresting nine people after facing “unacceptable violence” trying to control the crowds.
The huge crowds, many draped in English and British flags, gathered from late morning in and around Westminster for what Robinson, a veteran of UK far-right organising, branded the country’s “biggest free speech festival”.
Meanwhile around 5,000 people turned out at a Stand Up to Racism march starting around a mile to the north, with London’s Metropolitan police deploying about 1,000 police to keep the rival groups apart.
The Met, which estimated 110,000 people attended the far-right rally, said the clashes erupted after some were unable to access the main stage area and tried to enter so-called “sterile areas” near counter-demonstrators.
“When officers moved in to stop them they faced unacceptable violence,” the force said.
“They were assaulted with kicks and punches. Bottles, flares and other projectiles were thrown.
“Nine arrests have been made so far for various offences, but many more people have been identified as committing offences,” it added, vowing to find them “even if it is not possible to do so today”.
Robinson’s latest “Unite the Kingdom” event saw attendees march over Westminster Bridge before rallying near Downing Street for speeches by far-right figures from across Europe and North America.
“The silent majority will be silent no longer,” Robinson told the crowd. “Today is the spark of a cultural revolution.”
The duelling demonstrations come amid growing anti-immigration sentiment, as Brexit supporter Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK leads in polls and protesters target hotels used to house asylum seekers.
Robinson, 42, who has a string of criminal convictions and a big online following after years spearheading a fervent anti-Muslim and anti-migrant agenda, increasingly fuses those themes with claims that Britain is now hostile to free speech.
“Every day in the papers you read things and you’re being left stunned — arresting people because they dared to talk about immigration or gender issues,” Philip Dodge, a retired baker from Sheffield, central England, told AFP.
He had travelled with his wife to the event, which was also being watched by more than a million viewers on livestreams.
“I’m very concerned. I never thought I’d see this in this country.”
Other attendees said they were more worried about migration.
“It’s an invasion,” 28-year-old Ritchie, who only gave his first name, said of the record levels of UK immigration in recent years, including tens of thousands of asylum seekers arriving annually on small boats across the Channel.
“They don’t understand we want our country back,” he said of the ruling centre-left Labour government and its Conservative predecessors, calling Robinson “a hero”.
At the anti-racism event, veteran Labour lawmaker Diane Abbott accused Robinson and his allies of spreading “nonsense” and “dangerous” lies that asylum seekers were a threat.
“We need to be in solidarity with asylum seekers, and we need to show that we are united,” she told Sky News.
London police, who drafted in officers from other forces to manage the crowds, have placed conditions on the protest routes and timings, insisting they end at different times and that both conclude by evening.
Some at Robinson’s event attached to their placards photos of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing American activist and ally of Donald Trump who was shot to death this week.
Other signs included slogans like “stop the boats” and derided Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Speakers included Elon Musk, who joined via video-link, French politician Eric Zemmour and Petr Bystron of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
“You’re in a fundamental situation here,” Musk told the crowd, claiming “the left is the party of murder and celebrating murder”.
“Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die.”
The rally comes just over a year after anti-immigration riots swept several cities, which Robinson was accused of fuelling with incendiary online posts, and as free speech concerns become more mainstream.
Meanwhile, the recent arrest of Graham Linehan, an award-winning comedy writer, for allegedly insulting transgender people online prompted widespread derision.
AFP
AFP
AFP
