Father-of-two Mr Kirk, 31, a Donald Trump ally and co-founder and chief executive of the youth right-wing organisation Turning Point USA, was shot and killed at a Utah Valley University show on Wednesday, in what authorities called a political assassination.<\/p>\n
After the shooting, US President Mr Trump called Mr Kirk a \u201cmartyr for truth and freedom\u201d and blamed the rhetoric of the \u201cradical left\u201d for the killing.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people attended the vigil organised by activists from Turning Point UK on Friday evening by the statue of Field Marshal Montgomery in Whitehall \u2013 with many waving Union flags and a number of others wearing \u201cMake England Great Again\u201d (MEGA) hats.<\/p>\n
A large portrait of Mr Kirk was held up high up by the statue as Turning Point UK chief executive Jack Ross addressed the crowd calling for left-wingers to \u201cbe careful with their rhetoric\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not be intimidated, we will not be bullied out of standing up for our country, our values, and our people,\u201d Mr Ross said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite what certain members of the press have purported, Charlie was not a hateful far-right bigot: he was a good Christian man and his desire to help people came from his passion for Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI take this opportunity to ask people, especially those of the left wing of politics, that they must be careful with their rhetoric.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst sticks and stones do break bones, it is words that encourage people to pick up those sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA aged 18 to take his brand of Christian conservatism, advocating for low taxes and limited government, on to college campuses.<\/p>\n
He attracted a big online following, often posting videos of his confrontations with liberal students who questioned him on issues including abortion, gun rights and transgender rights, with his views drawing fierce criticism from some.<\/p>\n
Nick Tenconi, COO of Turning Point UK and leader of the UK Independence Party, told the crowd the shooting of Mr Kirk marked the beginning of a \u201cwar on evil\u201d and called for people to carry on Mr Kirk\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say, ladies and gentlemen, Charlie Kirk is a hero,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they try to cancel us, when they try to silence us, when they murder us, they create martyrs, and Charlie is a Christian martyr.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on: \u201cWe are at war with evil, we must end the madness, we must destroy evil: I say we are commanded as Christians not to make peace with evil, but to destroy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are under attack, each and every one of us, and we must defend ourselves. War has now been declared.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd responded to his speech by singing \u201cChrist is king\u201d.<\/p>\n
Married father-of-two Beau Thomas, 34, from Haywards Heath in West Sussex, put down a bouquet of flowers by the large Union flag that was hung to the fence near the Montgomery statue.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cHe (Charlie Kirk) was someone that we looked up to as a family, someone that we found inspirational, someone that stood up for many of same things we believe in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Christian myself and Charlie shared his Christian beliefs, and he did it articulately, he did it with love, he did it with virtue and good character, so what happened to him is just an awful tragedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a family man, he was a husband, he\u2019s already contributed so much to this world and the things he believed in and he did that peacefully, he did it with compassion and love for others.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlie stood up for what he believed in and people that disagree with that may call that divisive, they may call it hateful, but it doesn\u2019t mean that it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are free to share what they believe as long as they do it peacefully, and Charlie always did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A man and a woman who preferred to remain anonymous, both 26 and from London, came to the vigil holding a picture of Mr Kirk with the words \u201cIn Memoriam\u201d.<\/p>\n
The man said: \u201cThe scenes that I saw in Utah were really shocking, and regardless of your opinions of Charlie Kirk I think that no one should have to die for their political beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how he would respond to people who argue Mr Kirk\u2019s views were divisive and harmful, he replied: \u201cI think words are words, and violence is violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think words can be violent.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can incite violence, but I\u2019ve never seen Charlie Kirk do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always seen him engage in debate in good will and try to have an honest polite conversation with people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The motive for the shooting remains unclear, but Utah governor Spencer Cox announced in a US press conference on Friday a man called Tyler Robinson had been arrested, adding: \u201cWe got him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson, 22, had become \u201cmore political\u201d in the run-up to the shooting and had indicated to a family friend afterwards that he was responsible, Mr Cox said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Father-of-two Mr Kirk, 31, a Donald Trump ally and co-founder and chief executive of the youth right-wing organisation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-420308","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\/115195329173178763","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420308","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=420308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}