Thursday , October 23 2025

Clashes in London as 110,000 join rally against immigration

15-09-2025

LONDON: More than 110,000 people protesting against immigration have marched through the United Kingdom’s capital, London, in one of the country’s biggest right-wing demonstrations, with some protesters clashing with the police and wounding at least 26 officers.

The violence at the “Unite the Kingdom” march on Saturday came as police tried to keep the right-wing protesters apart from a group of some 5,000 rival demonstrators gathered at White Hall in central London.

London’s Metropolitan Police said the march, organized by anti-immigrant activist Tommy Robinson, drew an estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people, far surpassing expectations.

The police force said its officers faced “unacceptable violence” from some of the protesters and that four of them sustained serious injuries, among them broken teeth, a possible broken nose, a concussion, a prolapsed disc and a head injury.

“There is no doubt that many came to exercise their lawful right to protest but there were many who came intent on violence,” Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said in a statement.

“They confronted officers, engaging in physical and verbal abuse and making a determined effort to breach cordons in place to keep everyone safe.”

At least 25 people were arrested over the violence, Twist said, describing the detentions as “just the start”.

“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,” he added.

Secretary of State for the Home Department Shabana Mahmood also condemned “those who have attacked and injured police officers”, and insisted that “anyone taking part in criminal activity will face the full force of the law”.

‘Cultural revolution’

Robinson’s latest “Unite the Kingdom” march comes at the tail end of a highly charged summer in the UK that featured several protests staged outside hotels housing asylum seekers in England, following the arrest of an Ethiopian man who was later convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in a London suburb.

Demonstrators carried the Union flag of the UK and the red and white St George’s Cross of England, while others brought those of the United States and Israel. Some wore the “Make America Great Again”, or MAGA, hats of US President Donald Trump.

They chanted slogans critical of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and carried placards, with some saying, “Send them home”.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and who is known for his anti-immigrant and anti-Islam views, called the march “a show of patriotic unity like nothing seen before”.

“Today is the spark of a cultural revolution in Great Britain. This is our moment,” the 42-year-old activist told his supporters.

He billed the march as a demonstration for free speech, British heritage and culture, and pumped up the crowd with claims that migrants now had more rights in court than the “British public, the people that built this nation”.

Other speakers at Robinson’s event included US billionaire Elon Musk, who joined via video-link, French far-right politician Eric Zemmour, and Petr Bystron of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

“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, calling for a change of government in the UK. (Int’l News Desk)

Check Also

New copper demand drivers from US

22-10-2025 LONDON: Copper consumption in the United States and India is set to emerge from …