Daniel SandfordUK correspondent, central London and
Maia Davies
EPAThousands have gathered in central London for a march organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, with a counter protest by anti-racism campaigners also taking place.
Some 1,000 officers have been assigned to the demonstrations, the Metropolitan Police said, with barriers in place to create a “sterile area” between the two groups.
“Today London stands tall in defence of one of our most vital rights – free speech,” Robinson wrote on X.
The streets were a sea of union jacks, St George’s crosses, Scottish saltires and Welsh flags as large crowds of protesters amassed near Waterloo Bridge ahead of the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march towards Whitehall.
The Met said it had borrowed 500 officers from other forces for the day, with police vans from Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Devon and Cornwall.
There were a mix of slogans on the flags including ‘Stop the Boats’, ‘Send them Home’ and ‘Unite the Kingdom,’ and anti-transgender activists are among the crowds.
One man carried a large wooden cross with ‘RIP Charlie Kirk’ written on it – the right-wing US activist shot dead on Wednesday while speaking at a university.
The rally is set to include speeches from US President Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon and presenter Katie Hopkins.
A stage has been set up in Whitehall for the speeches, where several hundred people had already gathered by early afternoon.
They were carrying various flags and banners, and a band was heard playing songs about freedom and Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Elsewhere, around 500 people gathered near Russell Square for the ‘March Against Fascism’ counter protest organised by Stand up to Racism (SUTR).
Demonstrators held placards reading ‘Women Against the Far Right,’ ‘Oppose Tommy Robinson,’ and ‘Refugees Welcome’.
EPAThe group will also march toward Parliament Square – only a few hundred metres from the Unite the Kingdom rally. Speeches are expected by MPs Diane Abbott and Zarah Sultana.
Ahead of the march, the Met confirmed it would not be using live facial recognition – which captures people’s faces in real-time CCTV cameras – in its policing of the Unite the Kingdom march.
It also said there were “particular concerns” among some in London’s Muslim communities ahead of Robinson’s protest, citing a “record of anti-Muslim rhetoric and incidents of offensive chanting by a minority at previous marches”.
Cdr Clair Haynes urged Muslim Londoners not to change their plans or avoid central London, but to approach a police officer should they feel concerned while out in public.
She said: “Officers will take a firm line on behaviour that is discriminatory or that crosses the line from protest into hate crime.”
She added that police would act “without fear or favour” and asked demonstrators to “be considerate of the communities they are passing through”.
The Met said that it had ordered the Unite the Kingdom rally to end by 18:00 and the counter protest to end by 16:00, in line with when the organisers told the force they expected speeches to end.