More than 100,000 people in central London have joined a march organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, with a counter-protest by anti-racism campaigners also taking place.
Protesters who are forming the “Unite the Kingdom” march are heading towards Whitehall where they will hear a series of speeches from people including Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon.
Meanwhile thousands more gathered in another part of London for the counter-protest, dubbed March Against Fascism, organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR).
Around 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers have been deployed in London, with barriers in place to create a “sterile area” between the two protest groups.
The Met said it had borrowed 500 officers from other forces for the day, with police vans from Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Devon and Cornwall.
Just after midday, the streets of central London around Waterloo 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.
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.
EPA
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 Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Elsewhere, thousands of people gathered near Russell Square for the ‘March Against Fascism’ counter protest organised by Stand up to Racism (SUTR).
The 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.
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