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Facial recognition in use outside Kings Cross station![\"Oliver](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Oliver_Holmes,_L.png\")
Oliver Holmes<\/p>\n
Outside Kings Cross station in north London, where protesters arrived on trains from around the country, police had set up large signs on lamp-posts declaring facial recognition was being used.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice officers are using Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology to find people who are wanted by the police of the courts,\u201d the sign read.<\/p>\n
A white Metropolitan police<\/a> van was parked on a nearby road and surrounded by metal fences. Three cameras on a metal pole were pointing to the exit of the train station.<\/p>\n The sign warned that anyone who passes by the system would have their \u201cfacial biometric data\u201d processed, but that unless an \u201calert is triggered\u201d, the data will be immediately deleted.<\/p>\n Police in London use facial recognition near marches. Photograph: Oliver Holmes\/The GuardianA police van behind a metal barricade near the marches. Photograph: Oliver Holmes\/The GuardianShare<\/a> Far-right protesters have arrived into London<\/a> through the capital\u2019s major train stations in Kings Cross and Euston, and are walking south towards parliament.<\/p>\n Londoners and tourists walk by Unite the Kingdom protesters. Photograph: Oliver Holmes\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Many people arrived with England flags and union jacks wrapped over their backs, some with \u201cSTOP THE BOATS\u201d written on them. For those who did not bring their own, they could buy flags \u2013 or bucket hats with flags on them \u2013 from any of the multiple street sellers outside the station.<\/p>\n One seller is calling out: \u201cFlags or hats, sir?\u201d as men passed by. Dozens of police officers are standing around, and police vans were parked along the road.<\/p>\n Some protesters are stopping to take photos of a hot pink McLaren sportscar outside St Pancras, before heading down to the demonstration.<\/p>\n Many people are visibly drunk. A woman on the protest raised her middle finger to a helicopter overhead with a camera attached to it. \u201cHi,\u201d she says. \u201cFuck off\u201d.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Tommy Robinson has posted a video on X from his Unite the Kingdom rally, claiming it numbers in the \u201cmillions\u201d and is \u201cthe biggest event in British history\u201d.<\/p>\n Police have yet to provide estimates on the number of demonstrators today, but last year\u2019s event in September is thought to have drawn somewhere between 110,000 and 150,000 people.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a009.28 EDT<\/p>\n The pro-Palestine march today marks the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948, in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland after the creation of Israel. The march also includes anti-racism counter-protesters to Tommy Robinson\u2019s rally.<\/p>\n Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe\/Reuters Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe\/Reuters Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe\/Reuters Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe\/ReutersShare<\/a>Robinson urges supporters to ‘locally get involved in politics’<\/p>\n Stephen Yaxley-Lennon<\/strong>, or Tommy Robinson<\/strong> as he\u2019s known, called for crowds gathered for his Unite the Kingdom protest to get involved in politics<\/strong>, PA reports.<\/p>\n Far-right agitator Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known by his pseudonym Tommy Robinson, speaks during his Unite the Kingdom rally in London. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP<\/p>\n He said from the stage:<\/p>\n double quotation markAre you ready for the battle of Britain? 2029 we have an election. We\u2019re not asking anyone to go out and fight, but this is the most important moment in our generation.<\/p>\n If we don\u2019t send a message in our next election, if you don\u2019t register to vote, if you don\u2019t get involved, if you don\u2019t become activists, we are going to lose our country forever.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n He added:<\/p>\n double quotation markWe have to get political, we have to get involved. I\u2019m not going to tell you which political party you need to join. We\u2019re a cultural movement. I\u2019m going to tell you that you have to join a political party. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s Reform, if it\u2019s Advance, or it\u2019s Restore, or it\u2019s the Conservative party.<\/strong> We have to locally get involved in politics.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a009.02 EDT<\/p>\n Tommy Robinson spotted among the crowds at his Unite the Kingdom rally:<\/p>\n Photograph: Toby Shepheard\/AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.57 EDT<\/p>\n Police say 11 people arrested ‘for a variety of offences’<\/p>\n The Met said it has arrested 11 people \u201cfor a variety of offences\u201d so far.<\/strong> It did not specify how many arrests were linked to the Unite the Kingdom event and the pro-Palestine march.<\/p>\n Police said earlier today<\/a> two men were arrested near Euston station on suspicion of grievous bodily harm following an incident in Birmingham where a man was run over. They arrived in London to attend the United the Kingdom protest.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n PA reported several people in the crowds at the pro-Palestine march chanting \u201cfrom the river to the sea, Palestine<\/a> will be free\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n The chant has been the subject of intense political debate, with Keir Starmer previously saying he believed it was antisemitic.<\/a><\/p>\n Met police guidance<\/a> states the slogan \u201ccould potentially constitute an offence, but our advice at this point is that we would not likely pursue a prosecution\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s an explainer by the Guardian\u2019s Daniel Boffey<\/strong> on where the chant comes from and what it means:<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.31 EDT<\/p>\n Protesters begin marching in central London<\/p>\n Both marches have now set off from their starting points.<\/p>\n As a reminder, the Unite the Kingdom rally began in Kingsway near Holborn while the pro-Palestine Nakba Day march gathered more than 3 miles away in Exhibition Road in Kensington.<\/p>\n People take part in Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom march in central London. Photograph: Sam Hall\/PAPeople hold signs and flags as demonstrators from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign hold a march to mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba and against the Unite the Kingdom rally. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.15 EDT<\/p>\n The march routes through London<\/p>\n Here is the map of the two routes being taken today:<\/p>\n Map of London showing two march routes<\/a>Share<\/a><\/p>\n A woman has been arrested after she appeared to refuse to remove a fabric face mask she was wearing at a pro-Palestine protest forming up in South Kensington, the Press Association reports.<\/p>\n She was part of a group of protesters who were all asked to remove fabric and surgical face coverings.<\/p>\n A separate group, who were wearing orange jumpsuits with masks over their faces bearing a photo of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, were also asked to remove their masks.<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Speakers at today\u2019s far-right rally, according to its advertising, include the mother of a woman killed by an asylum seeker, and the American conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck, a former anchor on the rightwing Fox News channel who left amid claims he was too extreme for the Rupert Murdoch-owned network.<\/p>\n March organiser Tommy Robinson<\/a> went to the US in February where in Washington he met more than a dozen lawmakers and was hosted by the US state department. Previously he had been banned from entering the US because of criminal convictions.<\/p>\n The promotion material for the march features an AI-generated video that denounces Muslims and ends with a sequence where Robinson is on a stage adored by a crowd of tens of thousands and contains the line: \u201cTommy Robinson\u2019s vision, this is our destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n While the video for UTK may be AI fantasy, Nick Lowles, of Hope Not Hate<\/a>, said the reality was that Robinson was popular among a significant minority of Britons.<\/p>\n Polling shows he is known by more than 80% of respondents, and while the number of those disliking him is high, 17% like him: \u201cLennon can put more people on the streets than any other person. He is a phenomenon,\u201d said Lowles.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Here are some of the latest images of protesters gathering in London:<\/p>\n People take part in Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom march in central London. Photograph: Maja Smiejkowska\/PAPeople use megaphones as demonstrators from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign hold a march. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe\/ReutersA man holds up a placard with the words ‘God Bless Donald Trump’ as people take part in a Unite The Kingdom protest. Photograph: Carl Court\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a>Oliver Holmes<\/p>\n\n
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![\"Vikram](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Vikram_Dodd,_L.png\")
Vikram Dodd<\/p>\n