{"id":801171,"date":"2026-05-16T18:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/801171\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T18:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:50:15","slug":"tommy-robinson-tells-tens-of-thousands-at-london-rally-to-prepare-for-battle-of-britain-far-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/801171\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Robinson tells tens of thousands at London rally to prepare for \u2018battle of Britain\u2019 | Far right"},"content":{"rendered":"

The far-right activist Tommy Robinson<\/a> told tens of thousands of supporters to prepare for the \u201cbattle of Britain\u201d during a rally in London on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, drew tens of thousands of supporters on to the streets of central London<\/a> for the second year running in an event where Islamophobic and ethnonationalist hate speech and flyers were distributed to the crowds.<\/p>\n

Organisers claimed that millions had attended his \u201cunite the kingdom\u201d march, but police estimated the number of demonstrators to be far lower, at about 60,000. Last September\u2019s march was attended by 150,000 people.<\/p>\n

Crowds gathered in Parliament Square for the demonstration. Photograph: Sean Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Robinson, who gained prominence as the founder of the anti-Islam English Defence League, told crowds gathered in Parliament Square that the rally was \u201ca turning point for Britain\u201d.<\/p>\n

He encouraged his supporters to move beyond street protest and \u201cfighting\u201d and become involved in local politics before the next general election.<\/p>\n

The campaign group Hope Not Hate said that although the march appeared to have attracted fewer demonstrators than the previous rally, the scale of Robinson\u2019s movement remained \u201cdeeply worrying\u201d.<\/p>\n

It added: \u201cToday\u2019s numbers still dwarf anything ever managed by the English Defence League and hundreds of thousands more watched the livestream online. While it looks like the movement\u2019s growth may have stalled, it still remains a significant threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan police said it had spent \u00a34.5m policing the march and a separate pro-Palestinian demonstration which ended in Waterloo. There were about 4,000 officers on duty. Armoured vehicles, dogs, drones and helicopters were also deployed throughout the afternoon.<\/p>\n

The force said that, as of 4.30pm, it had made 31 arrests across both events. It said it would \u201cprovide a more detailed breakdown\u201d when the marches had concluded.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson added: \u201cWhile this may seem high, to this point both protests have proceeded largely without significant incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two men were arrested near Euston station after arriving in London to attend the Unite the Kingdom rally. One was wanted on suspicion of grievous bodily harm after an incident in Birmingham where a man was run over<\/a>. The second was arrested in connection with a separate offence, which involved encouraging people to attack a police officer.<\/p>\n

The protests had a significant Christian theme with many protesters who marched to Parliament Square carrying wooden crosses and chanting \u201cChrist is king\u201d as they waited for the march to begin. Others wore red \u201cmake England great again\u201d hats.<\/p>\n

Robinson asked the crowd if they were ready for the \u2018battle of Britain\u2019. Photograph: Sean Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Addressing the crowd, Robinson said: \u201cAre 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

\u201cIf 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 for ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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. We have to locally get involved in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson also led chants of support for the X owner, Elon Musk, one of his best-known supporters. He said: \u201cNone of this would have happened if it wasn\u2019t for one man. Thank you Elon on behalf of Great Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rally was also addressed by Siobhan Whyte, whose daughter Rhiannon was murdered by the Sudanese asylum seeker Deng Majek during an attack at the hotel where she worked in Walsall, West Midlands, in 2024. Majek was jailed for life in January.<\/p>\n

Whyte said: \u201cKeir Starmer, where do I even begin to discuss this abhorrent excuse of a leader of our country? He has failed us. He has failed my daughter Rhiannon. I believe she [would] still be alive today if this disgusting excuse of a man had not been in control.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Polish politician Dominik Tarczy\u0144ski, who claimed to have been banned from entering the UK by Starmer before the rally, addressed the crowds via video link. He said: \u201cHe could ban me. He will not cancel you. And believe me, there will be a day I will be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government is understood to have blocked 11 foreign nationals \u2013 described by Starmer as \u201cfar-right agitators\u201d \u2013 from entering the UK before the rally.<\/p>\n

Many demonstrators carried crosses and chanted \u2018Christ is king\u2019. Photograph: Sean Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Katie Hopkins, <\/strong>the former Apprentice contestant turned far-right commentator, also sent a video message to the demonstrators. She said: \u201cI want to thank you all for being at the \u2018unite the kingdom\u2019 rally today. Whether you\u2019re here in London or joining us from overseas, welcome to Great Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to say a few things to you, if I may. I see you, and I see our capital city, and it looks for the first time in a very long time like the place that I remember, and our capital city and a place that we can all call home, and I\u2019m so proud of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some demonstrators distributed flyers saying they wanted to secure \u201ca future for white people\u201d. The leaflet said: \u201cIn a country saturated with degenerates, grifters and imported political enemies \u2026 We are a brotherhood of White Europeans who share the same values.\u201d It added that anyone could join their \u201cvanguard\u201d and they could remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

Writing on X on Saturday, the justice secretary, David Lammy, said: \u201cThe Unite the Kingdom march organisers are spreading hatred and division. They do not reflect the Britain I\u2019m proud of.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeaceful protest is a fundamental right and one I will always protect. But if protest turns violent, we will act swiftly, with extra court capacity in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campaign group Led by Donkeys said it put up a giant screen at the rally which played a video with the slogan: \u201cImmigration makes Britain brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The far-right activist Tommy Robinson told tens of thousands of supporters to prepare for the \u201cbattle of Britain\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":801172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-801171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116585760298254093","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}