London's Metropolitan Police watch the far-right protest in London. Photo / AFP
Tommy Robinson supporters “kicked and punched” police officers during one of Britain’s largest ever right-wing rallies, the Metropolitan Police have claimed.
More than 100,000 people descended on central London for the “Unite the Kingdom” demonstration on Saturday, local time.
Nine people were arrested and Scotland Yard said more arrests were expected.
The force said that officers “faced unacceptable violence” from protesters and “were assaulted with kicks and punches” and “bottles, flares and other projectiles” were also thrown.
A spokesman said on X, formerly Twitter: “Nine arrests have been made so far for various offences, but many more people have been identified as committing offences. We will find them and they will face police action, even if it is not possible to do so today.”
Many of the protesters gathered on Whitehall, where they heard a series of speeches from protest organiser Robinson – Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, is a British anti-Islam campaigner and one of the UK’s most prominent far-right activists – who organised the protest, as well as Katie Hopkins, Laurence Fox and Elon Musk, via videolink.
Musk told protesters there was an “increasing erosion of Britain”.
The streets of the capital were filled with Union, St George, Welsh and Scottish flags, while slogans on their flags included “Stop the Boats”, “Send them Home” and “Unite the Kingdom”.
Protesters also held up signs in tribute to Charlie Kirk, the US conservative activist who was fatally shot this week while speaking at Utah Valley University.
Robinson’s supporters claimed that three million people had joined the protest, which would have made it the largest in British history, but the Met put the figure at around 110,000.
About 1000 police officers were deployed.
From a stage on Whitehall, Robinson claimed that politicians are now repeating what he has been saying.
“Politicians all of a sudden are finding courage and they’re parroting the things that we have said for 15 years. They slaughtered us, they demonised us, they attacked us and they imprisoned us.”
He added: “When we energise, when we captivate, when we electrify those 20 million people. That is when we regain power of our country.”
Musk, whose face appeared on a large screen, said: “I think there’s 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.
“A failure by the Government to protect innocent people including children who are getting gang-raped. It’s unreal the Government has failed in its duty to protect its citizens, which is a fundamental duty of government.”
He added: “There’s so much violence on the left, with our friend Charlie Kirk getting murdered in cold blood this week and people on the left celebrating it openly.
“The left is the party of murder and celebrating murder. I mean, let that sink in for a minute, that’s who we’re dealing with here.”
The Met estimated that around 5000 people joined a nearby counter-protest organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR).
At one point, the group were just metres away from Robinson supporters and the two groups stared each down while separated by a line of police officers.
Projectiles, including a traffic cone, bottles and pieces of wood, were thrown across the divide and photographs showed several protesters with bloodied faces.
There were also reports of a police horse being struck by a glass bottle and an officer was seen trying to stamp out a flare in the gap between the two protest groups.
Several men were seen being detained by police.
One man shouted “this is what England has become” as he was handcuffed with his head pressed against the road at the front of the crowd of Robinson supporters.
Officers rushed him to the side of Whitehall where he was detained and then walked, bent double, to a police van.
Independent MP Diane Abbott told a crowd of anti-fascist protesters that Robinson’s allies “are some of the most anti-women forces in society”.
She said: “They are trying to drag women into their project, they are claiming that they are protecting women, but ... they oppose equal pay, they oppose action against discrimination, they belittle sexual harassment as banter.
“So we are here to stand together, we are here to fight, and we are here in the certainty that we will defeat the fascists.”
The march shows “fascists cannot walk the streets of London unopposed”, she told the crowd from the stage on Whitehall.
“We know racism and violence and fascism is not new”, she said, adding: “But you know what? We have always defeated that racism and violence.”
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