![\"Tommy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2.80879030.jpg\")
Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has organised the \u2018Unite the Kingdom\u2019 protest (Lucy North\/PA)<\/p>\nA counter-protest, dubbed March Against Fascism, organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR), is also due to take place in the city on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Around 1,000 officers will be deployed in London in a bid to prevent clashes between protesters with opposing views.<\/p>\n
The Unite the Kingdom march and rally organised by Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, will see demonstrators arrive in Stamford Street near Waterloo Bridge at 11am to march towards the southern end of Whitehall.<\/p>\n
He described the event \u2013 set to hear from speakers including Canadian psychologist and political commentator Jordan Peterson and Katie Hopkins \u2013 as the UK\u2019s biggest free speech festival and said thousands are due to attend.<\/p>\n
Commander Clair Haynes, who is in charge of the public order policing operation in London this weekend, said: \u201cWe recognise that there are particular concerns for many in London\u2019s Muslim communities ahead of the \u2018Unite the Kingdom\u2019 protest given the record of anti-Muslim rhetoric and incidents of offensive chanting by a minority at previous marches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been some suggestions that Muslim Londoners should change their behaviour this Saturday, including not coming into town.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is not our advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone should be able to feel safe travelling into and around London. Our officers are there to ensure that is the case and we\u2019d urge anyone who is out on Saturday and feels concerned to speak to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson has called on attendees of his rally to not wear masks, drink alcohol or be violent.<\/p>\n
In a video on X he said: \u201cIt\u2019s not a time for riots. It\u2019s not a time for violence. It\u2019s a time where you come and you stand proudly for your country.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThis is an imperative message and an important message: we have to control ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has organised the \u2018Unite the Kingdom\u2019 protest (Lucy North\/PA)<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the SUTR protest will form up in Russell Square from midday before marching via Kingsway, Aldwych and the Strand to the northern end of Whitehall for a rally.<\/p>\n
The march will be led by hundreds of women, SUTR said, including independent MP Diane Abbott.<\/p>\n
Samira Ali, national organiser for SUTR, said:\u00a0\u201cOur demonstration will be sending a message loud and clear: we are united against the far right threat. Women don\u2019t need the far right to keep us safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scotland Yard said barriers will be in place to keep a large \u201csterile area\u201d between the two groups, with officers deployed there and on surrounding roads to \u201cminimise the risk of disorder\u201d if the groups were to come together.<\/p>\n
Strict conditions will be imposed under the Public Order Act on where and when campaigners can protest, the force added.<\/p>\n
Five Premier League football matches are also set to take place on Saturday, including derbies between West Ham and Tottenham, and Brentford and Chelsea.<\/p>\n
More than 1,600 officers will be deployed in total across the city, with 500 brought in from other forces, the Metropolitan Police said.<\/p>\n
Ms Haynes said: \u201cThis will be a very busy day with protests, sporting fixtures, concerts and other events.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Met is used to delivering the sort of complex and large-scale policing operation that is required to keep the public safe, and we have a detailed plan to do so on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am grateful to the many hundreds of Met officers who are being deployed away from their day-to-day roles and to the 500 or so officers from around the country who have responded to our request for support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main focus of the operation is on the two protests in central London. We will approach them as we do any other protests, policing without fear or favour, ensuring people can exercise their lawful rights, but being robust in dealing with incidents or offences should they occur.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the run-up to the protests we have been in close contact with the organisers, with local business and community representatives, and with representatives of communities across London more broadly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would ask all those taking part in the protests to be considerate of the communities they are passing through to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum. Officers will take a firm line on behaviour that is discriminatory or that crosses the line from protest into hate crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Metropolitan Police Federation chairwoman Paula Dodds said officers policing large protests regularly are \u201cemotionally and physically exhausted\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen multiple Metropolitan Police officers be refused leave and have much-needed rest days cancelled,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur colleagues have and continue to lose time with their families, friends and loved ones because they have been pulled into London to police protests. We must remember there are no \u2018extra\u2019 police officers. Just the same hard-working ones having their days off cancelled, having to work longer shifts and being moved from other areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (officers) have come under attack and been violently assaulted for doing the job society expects of them. The demand is relentless. And it\u2019s not sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A counter-protest, dubbed March Against Fascism, organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR), is also due to take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-419978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115194621388309667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}