Police officers<\/a> were assaulted during clashes with protesters at a “freedom of speech” festival in London<\/a>, led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson<\/a>, Scotland Yard<\/a> has confirmed. <\/p>\n The event, dubbed “Unite the Kingdom,”<\/a> drew an estimated 110,000 people to Whitehall, according to Metropolitan Police figures.<\/p>\n The large gathering faced opposition from anti-racism campaigners, with approximately 5,000 individuals participating in a counter-protest. <\/a>Officers from the Metropolitan Police<\/a>, who were attempting to keep the two groups separated, reported significant challenges.<\/p>\n The force stated: “Officers are having to intervene in multiple locations to stop Unite the Kingdom protesters trying to access sterile areas, breach police cordons or get to opposing groups.” <\/p>\n They further confirmed that “A number of officers have been assaulted.” <\/p>\n Earlier in the day, police also reported that their officers had been “attacked with projectiles and have had to use force to avoid their cordon being breached.”<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Police officers preventing a crowd of \u2018Unite the Kingdom\u2019 protesters trying to access \u2018sterile\u2019 areas during the Tommy Robinson-led Unite the Kingdom march and rally in central London (Metropolitan Police\/PA) (Metropolitan Police\/PA)<\/p>\n The two groups were divided by a line of police officers on Whitehall, one side waving placards that said \u201crefugees welcome. Stop the far right\u201d and the other flying Union<\/a> and St George\u2019s flags.<\/p>\n The \u201cUnite\u201d protest featured speeches on a stage in Whitehall from Robinson and other activists including former actor Lawrence Fox, former Apprentice candidate Katie Hopkins<\/a> along with musical performers and a group of bare-chested members of the Destiny Church in New Zealand<\/a> performing a haka.<\/p>\n A sea of flags could be seen in the crowd including the St George\u2019s Cross, the Union flag, the Scottish<\/a> saltire and Welsh<\/a> dragon with others carrying wooden crosses with \u201cChrist\u201d written on and singing Christian<\/a> songs.<\/p>\n Chants in support of Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, could be heard alongside \u201cf*** Keir Starmer\u201d and \u201cKeir Starmer is a wanker\u201d.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n A person with a bloodied face and clothing confronting police officers (PA Wire)<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the counter-protest, dubbed March Against Fascism, chanted \u201cstand up, fight back\u201d and \u201cwe are the women, we won\u2019t be silenced, stop the fascists now, now, now, now\u201d as they marched from Russell Square<\/a> towards Parliament.<\/p>\n Strict conditions have been imposed under the Public Order Act on where and when campaigners can protest, the Met<\/a> said, with the SUTR event ending at 4pm and the Unite the Kingdom event finishing at 6pm.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Anti-racism protesters gather to counter an anti-immigration rally led by Tommy Robinson, in London (REUTERS)<\/p>\n Five Premier League<\/a> football matches are also set to take place on Saturday, including derbies between West Ham<\/a> and Tottenham, and Brentford<\/a> 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-421490","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\/115197892773435098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421490","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=421490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/36b47ed7acc36ee522d0a9095349f0c9Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzU3ODYxNzQw-2.81593726.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3a5646d23fc6c93cd08a9ba8b2f7fbd6Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzU3ODYyNTIy-2.81593844.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Anti-racism](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Anti-racism-protesters-gather-to-counter-anti-immigration-rally-led-by-Tommy-Robinson-in-London-qkig.jpeg\")
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