Tens of thousands march in London in separate immigration, pro-Palestinian protests

LONDON: Tens of thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday in two separate protests - one against high levels of immigration and another in support of Palestinians.

Police deployed 4,000 officers, including reinforcements from outside the capital, and pledged “the most assertive possible use of our powers” in what they called their biggest public order operation in years.

By 1200 GMT, shortly after both marches started, police said they had made 11 arrests for a range of offences. They had earlier forecast turnout of at least 80,000.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday accused organisers of the Unite the Kingdom march of “peddling hate and division, plain and simple”.

The march was organised by anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson. The government barred 11 people it described as “foreign far-right agitators” from entering Britain to address the protest.

A previous protest led by Robinson in September drew around 150,000 people, police said, and featured a video address by US tech billionaire Elon Musk. More than 20 people were arrested, and police are still seeking more than 50 suspects.

On Saturday, Robinson supporters gathered in central London, waving mainly British and English flags.

“I think that too much migration – not migration, but too much migration – is causing a lot of problems, upsetting a delicate balance here,” said Allison Parr, who also criticised net-zero environmental policies.

Annual net migration approached 900,000 in 2022 and 2023, but fell back to around 200,000 last year after tighter work visa rules.

Concern over immigration - including the arrival of asylum seekers on small boats - has weighed on Starmer’s popularity and boosted the right-wing Reform UK party, whose leader Nigel Farage has distanced himself from Robinson.

Some protesters chanted abuse about Starmer.

Robinson, who has convictions for assault, stalking and other offences, urged supporters this week to act peacefully in what he billed as “the greatest patriotic display the world has ever seen”.

Earlier this year, he travelled to the US, where he met a State Department official and addressed supporters about what he called “the dangers of Islam” and “the Islamification of Great Britain”.

Census data showed 6.5% of people in England and Wales identified as Muslim in 2021, up from 4.9% in 2011.

Nearby, pro-Palestinian demonstrators held a march to mark Nakba Day, commemorating Palestinians’ loss of land in the 1948 war that followed the creation of Israel. “Nakba” means catastrophe in Arabic.

The march also drew those opposing the Unite the Kingdom rally, alongside predominantly Palestinian flags.

London has recently seen a spate of arson attacks on Jewish sites, and two Jewish men were stabbed last month in an incident being treated as terrorism.

Police said repeated large pro-Palestinian marches - 33 since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023 - had left many Jewish people feeling too intimidated to enter central London.

While protesters held a range of views, police said they routinely made arrests for racially and religiously aggravated public order offences, inciting racial hatred or supporting proscribed organisations.

The government said police would arrest protesters who chanted “globalise the intifada”, a reference to Palestinian uprisings against Israel that many British Jews view as inciting antisemitism.

Some protesters on Saturday chanted “Death to the IDF”, referring to the Israeli army - language that police said had previously been a reason for arrests when aimed at Jewish people.