{"id":135221,"date":"2025-09-13T19:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/135221\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T19:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:23:07","slug":"far-right-london-rally-sees-record-crowds-and-violent-clashes-with-police-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/135221\/","title":{"rendered":"Far-right London rally sees record crowds and violent clashes with police | Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 110,000 people have taken part in a far-right street protest organised by the activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson<\/a>, in what is thought to be the largest nationalist event in decades.<\/p>\n

Marchers travelled to London<\/a> by train and coach for a demonstration, which was billed as a \u201cfestival of free speech\u201d, but by its conclusion had amplified racist conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim hate speech across Whitehall.<\/p>\n

The scale of the protest vastly outgrew police estimates resulting in tense and at times violent clashes between protesters and police.<\/p>\n

The crowds were addressed by Elon Musk, who dialled in via video link and spoke of \u201cthe rapidly increasing erosion of Britain\u201d, before calling for the dissolution of the UK parliament.<\/p>\n

The French far-right politician \u00c9ric Zemmour was also invited to speak. He told protesters they were subject to \u201cthe great replacement of our European people by peoples coming from the south and of Muslim culture\u201d, adding that \u201cyou and we are being colonised by our former colonies\u201d.<\/p>\n

The huge turnout meant attenders could not be contained within Whitehall, the endpoint of the march, where the rally was being held. The swelling numbers resulted in clashes with police with the Met saying officers \u201cfaced unacceptable violence\u201d after being \u201cassaulted with kicks and punches. Bottles, flares and other projectiles were thrown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AerialAerial footage shows scale of ‘unite the kingdom’ rally \u2013 video<\/p>\n

About 5,000 counter-protesters from trade unions and anti-fascist groups marched in a separate route in central London.<\/p>\n

Large crowds displaying union jack and St George flags had been drifting into central London since the early morning in anticipation of the rally.<\/p>\n

Shortly before 1pm, people began marching across Westminster Bridge. The crowd, which was largely white, sang \u201cKeir Starmer\u2019s a wanker\u201d to the tune of Seven Nation Army and broke into chants of \u201cTommy\u201d, \u201cWhose street? Our street\u201d and \u201cEngland\u201d. Some also held signs in support of Tommy Robinson.<\/p>\n

On the approach to Whitehall, stalls sold books co-authored by Robinson titled \u201cManifesto: Free Speech, Real Democracy, Peaceful Disobedience\u201d and \u201cMohammed\u2019s Koran: Why Muslims Kill for Islam\u201d.<\/p>\n

One elderly woman in a wheelchair, who travelled to attend from Merseyside with her son, held a sign with Charlie Kirk\u2019s face on it with the words: \u201cGod bless, never forget\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m British through and through; this is our capital,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to be here today for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her son added: \u201cI feel our country is being inundated with the ideology which is trying to suppress and suppress us and I just want our country back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair said they were \u201cfollowers of Tommy Robinson and what he stands for\u201d, adding the \u201cestablishment just want him out\u201d. They denied it was a far-right event, saying their attendance was a \u201cpatriotic visit\u201d.<\/p>\n

The mother said when she was a child in Liverpool, she \u201clived amongst neighbours from Africa, Pakistan; we were all one. It\u2019s not about race, this is the government just overcrowding our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol took the coach from south Wales to attend the rally. She said she was there because \u201cwe need to unite the kingdom basically, it just seems to be so divided. We just need to come together, all of us.\u201d Elaborating on this, she said: \u201cIt seems to be one half can say \u2018I do what I want\u2019, and the other half have to watch everything they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

She held a sign that read \u201cChange my mind: RIP Charlie\u201d, referencing Kirk\u2019s open-invitation college campus debates. She said she \u201cprobably picked up on him about a year ago\u201d after he came up on her social media feed.<\/p>\n

When asked what she thought of Robinson\u2019s involvement in the rally, she said: \u201cWhen I first heard of him in 2017, the consensus and opinion around him was that he\u2019s a bad un.\u201d Since then, \u201chaving looked more into what he does\u201d, she said: \u201cHe\u2019s doing really well. He\u2019s changed a lot of minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitehall quickly became so full that it was closed to marchers before the first speakers even took to the stage, leaving thousands stuck on Westminster Bridge and in Parliament Square.<\/p>\n

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On Whitehall, crammed in front of three big screens, the crowds swelled to what felt like dangerous levels. People stood on bus stops and portable toilets to get a better view of the stage.<\/p>\n

One man waved a sign saying: \u201cWhy are white people despised when our tax money pays for everything?\u201d Another had a placard that said: \u201cCall centres: speak English.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rally began with music. Members of the Destiny Church in New Zealand performed a traditional haka dance for the protesters, which was followed by a song with the lyrics \u201cMaking the west look like the Middle East\u201d. They then displayed the flags of the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State and Palestine to boos from the crowd, before tearing each of them in half to loud cheers.<\/p>\n

Robinson then took to the stage and said \u201cBritain has finally awoken\u201d and that \u201cthis is never going away\u201d. He claimed that British courts ruled that the rights of undocumented migrants supersede those of the \u201clocal community\u201d, referring to Epping council\u2019s failed case against the Home Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told the world that Somalians, Afghanis, Pakistanis, all of them, their rights supersede yours \u2013 the British public, the people that built this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then played a video that included images of convicted members of a grooming gang followed by a video of a white woman crying.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk, speaking by video link, told the crowd: \u201cI think there\u2019s something beautiful about being British and what I see happening here is a destruction of Britain, initially a slow erosion but rapidly increasing erosion of Britain with massive uncontrolled migration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA failure by the government to protect innocent people including children who are getting gang-raped. It\u2019s unreal the government has failed in its duty to protect its citizens, which is a fundamental duty of government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zammour, who came in fourth place in the first round of the 2022 French presidential election, told the crowd in French, which was translated for the audience, that the \u201cfreedom of our peoples is in danger\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the anti-fascist march, the MP Diane Abbott told a crowd that Tommy Robinson\u2019s allies \u201care some of the most anti-women forces in society\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThey are trying to drag women into their project, they are claiming that they are protecting women, but they are some of the most anti-women forces in society \u2013 they oppose equal pay, they oppose action against discrimination, they belittle sexual harassment as banter.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we are here to stand together, we are here to fight, and we are here in the certainty that we will defeat the fascists.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 110,000 people have taken part in a far-right street protest organised by the activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-135221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}