At least 110,000 people attended the “Unite the Kingdom” rally, vastly outnumbering the 5,000-strong counter-protest; 26 police officers were injured and 25 arrests were made.
Speeches from Tommy Robinson, Elon Musk, and Éric Zemmour framed the event with conspiracy theories, anti-Muslim rhetoric, and calls for the dissolution of parliament, according to police and media reports.
In the wake of the shooting of Charles Kirk, London witnessed one of its largest far-right gatherings in recent times, dubbed “Unite the Kingdom” and organised by activist Tommy Robinson. Several police officers were injured while attempting to keep the rally separate from the "Stand Up to Racism" counter-protest.
While the latter was 5,000 strong, the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally was attended by at least 110,000 people, and the police described it to be "too big to fit into Whitehall," the approved route of the march on a street lined with government buildings.
At least 26 police officers were injured, with the total arrests now tallying to 25. "We are identifying those who were involved in the disorder and they can expect to face robust police action in the coming days and weeks," Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said, Reuters reported.
According to The Guardian, the rally marked an effort by Robinson (42) — whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — to unify Britain’s fragmented far-right. He has aligned himself with Advance UK, a new party formed by former Reform UK members, while increasingly adopting Christian nationalist rhetoric.
The demonstrators carried flags of England and Britain, waving Union Jacks, St George’s crosses, Scottish saltires and Welsh flags. The rally, advertised as “festival of free speech”, had by its ends become replete with language of racist conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim hate speech across Whitehall, The Guardian reported.
Whitehall had to be closed due to a surge in the attendees even before the speakers could start, leaving thousands stuck on Westminster Bridge and in Parliament Square.
The rally opened with music, as members of New Zealand’s Destiny Church performed a traditional haka for the protesters. This was followed by a song featuring the lyrics “Making the west look like the Middle East”. The group then displayed flags of the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State, and Palestine, which were met with boos before being ripped in half to loud cheers from the crowd, according to The Guardian.
Robinson later took the stage, declaring that “Britain has finally awoken” and insisting that “this is never going away”. He alleged that British courts had ruled in favour of undocumented migrants over the “local community”, citing Epping council’s failed case against the Home Office.
“They told the world that Somalians, Afghanis, Pakistanis, all of them, their rights supersede yours – the British public, the people that built this nation,” he said.
During the rally, crowds were addressed by Elon Musk, who joined via video link. He warned of “the rapidly increasing erosion of Britain” and went on to call for the dissolution of the UK parliament.
“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,” Musk said.
“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.”
French far-right politician Éric Zemmour was also among the invited speakers. Addressing the protesters, he claimed they were experiencing “the great replacement of our European people by peoples coming from the south and of Muslim culture”, adding that “you and we are being colonised by our former colonies,” The Guardian reported.
The massive turnout overwhelmed Whitehall, the designated endpoint of the march and site of the rally. As crowds spilled beyond the area, clashes erupted with police. According to the Metropolitan Police, officers “faced unacceptable violence” after being “assaulted with kicks and punches. Bottles, flares and other projectiles were thrown.”
