Scale of Tommy Robinson protest shows free speech is ‘alive and well’ in the UK, minister says
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.
At least 25 people were arrested and 26 police officers were injured – including four who were seriously hurt – at Tommy Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” protest in London yesterday, the Metropolitan police said.
The protest, thought to be the largest nationalist event in decades, saw between 110,000 and 150,000 people turn out, significantly exceeding the estimates of organisers. Elsewhere, about 5,000 anti-racism campaigners mounted a counter-protest.
The crowds were addressed by Elon Musk, who dialled in via video link and spoke of “the rapidly increasing erosion of Britain”, before calling for the dissolution of the UK parliament.
Protesters clash with police at far-right rally in London – video
Business and trade secretary Peter Kyle was asked by Sky News’ Trevor Phillips this morning if the demonstration – organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson – “disturbed” him.
Kyle said the number of people who turned out for the protest shows free speech is “alive and well” in the UK.
He explained:
It doesn’t disturb me, because it’s actually proof that we live in a country where free speech, free association, is alive and well.
The bit that disturbs me is that when a minority go to an extreme and end up perpetrating violence against the police. That is unacceptable and those people should and will pay for it.
“The flag was waved quite a lot and I do want to make the point that the flag belongs to all of us,” Kyle added.
“That flag means a lot of different things to a lot of people, but it is about essential British and English values and principles.”
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The Metropolitan police have said they will make “further arrests in the coming days and weeks”, following violence at the “Unite the Kingdom” march.
“A post-event investigation is under way, with officers working to identify other people involved in disorder with a view to making further arrests in the coming days and weeks,” the force said.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, condemned the violent scenes on Saturday and vowed that anyone “taking part in criminal activity will face the full force of the law”.
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We have an update from the Metropolitan police regarding arrests at yesterday’s “Unite the Kingdom” march in London.
The force said 24 people were arrested during the protest in London on Saturday.
The force said the previous figure of 26 arrests included two duplicate records. Of those arrested, three were women and 21 were men. The oldest person arrested was 58 and the youngest was 19.
The Met said the offences people were arrested for included common assault, actual bodily harm, affray, criminal damage, public order offences, assault on an emergency worker, possession of an offensive weapon, drunk and disorderly behaviour, violent disorder, breach of Public Order Act conditions and obstruction.
A number of people were arrested on suspicion of more than one offence.
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Updated at 13.19 BST
In light of the mainstreaming of inflammatory rhetoric about migrants and high concern among the public about the issue, my colleague Michael Goodier has crunched the numbers to show what the immigration figures for the UK really show us. Here is an extract from his piece:
Despite public concern about immigration rising in recent months, official figures show that the number of people coming into the country is falling – albeit from a record high peak.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that net migration has mainly hovered between 200,000 and 300,000 people a year since 2011. However, since Brexit came into effect on New Year’s Eve 2020, there has been a large increase in the number of immigrants. Commentators and critics have called this the “Boriswave”, as it occurred following the new post-Brexit immigration system introduced by Boris Johnson.
Recent figures show that the wave is subsiding. Net migration fell by half in 2024, and recent rule changes mean it is expected to fall further. This is largely because of a decrease in health and care visas. Fewer people are now escaping the Ukraine war or fleeing the Taliban through the now closed Afghan humanitarian scheme.
Net migration graphicShare
Lib Dems call for independent inquiry into Mandelson’s appointment
The Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney has been quoted by Sky News as having said the party is calling for an independent investigation into what was known about Peter Mandelson’s friendship with Jeffery Epstein at the time of his appointment as US ambassador.
“The government has serious questions to answer about what they knew and when,” Olney was quoted as having said. “The current explanations just don’t add up.”
“We need an urgent independent inquiry into how details of Mandelson’s ties with a convicted paedophile slipped through the cracks of government vetting,” she added.
“This inquiry must be given access to all the relevant messages, texts and documents so it can get to the bottom of this appalling mess.”
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This report was written by my colleagues Peter Walker, Eleni Courea and Pippa Crerar:
Keir Starmer has been warned that time is running out to repair his faltering leadership, with Labour MPs beginning to ask whether he could be challenged as prime minister.
After a disastrous week in which Angela Rayner resigned and Peter Mandelson was sacked as ambassador to Washington, a number of MPs said a challenge was likely if local and Welsh elections went badly next May.
Some said the one thing now protecting Starmer was the lack of an agreed replacement.
“Personally, I think the clock is ticking,” one MP said. “It sometimes happens to people who are incredibly well meaning, but you can pass that tipping point and can’t recover.”
Keir Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson, who was a cabinet minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before becoming the EU trade commissioner, for his political experience. Photograph: Carl Court/Reuters
It came as Lucy Powell, who was sacked from the cabinet in the reshuffle after Rayner’s departure and who is standing to replace her as deputy leader, called for a “change of culture” in a Downing Street she described as overly factional and error-prone.
“We’ve got a bit of ar groupthink happening at the top, that culture of not being receptive to interrogation, not being receptive to differing views,” Powell told the Guardian.
The only MP to go public in saying Starmer should go is Clive Lewis, a regular critic of the government from the left of the party.
The Norwich South MP told BBC’s The Week in Westminster programme that Starmer had “lost control within the first year”, adding: “We don’t have the luxury of carrying on this way with someone who I think increasingly, I’m sorry to say, just doesn’t seem up to the job.”
You can read the full story here:
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Updated at 11.33 BST
The Guardian’s deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot, has done an explainer on who could replace Peter Mandelson. George Osborne, the former Conservative chancellor and architect of austerity, and David Miliband, the former Labour cabinet minister and president of the International Rescue Committee, are among the contenders.
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Speaking to Sky News, Laura Trott said the new ambassador to the US shouldn’t be appointed “until we know what went wrong with the process last time”.
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Shadow education secretary says ‘full transparency’ is needed over Mandelson’s appointment
Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, said there must be “full transparency” from the government about what (vetting) advice went to Keir Starmer and at what point.
She said the Conservative party will use all means available to them to “force this information into light to expose what is going on at the heart of government”.
Trott said:
We know that Bloomberg put these allegations to the Foreign Office on Tuesday. I’ve been in Number 10 – there is no way that is not then reported into Number 10.
This is what we’re going to be pushing for next week, and if you’re a Labour MP watching this now, you should be pushing for it too, because we will use every mechanism that is available to us to force the truth to come out.
We need these documents. We need to understand what advice went to the prime minister and when who made these decisions.
How have we ended up in a situation where the advice for the prime minister is to appoint the best pal of a convicted paedophile to be US ambassador?
It is unacceptable. The British public will not have this, and the Conservative party will make sure that we get answers.
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Updated at 10.51 BST
Kemi Badenoch accused Keir Starmer and Labour MPs of “lying to the whole country about what they knew regarding Mandelson’s involvement with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein”.
The Tory leader wrote on X: “If No 10 had those emails for 48 hours before acting, it means he lied at PMQs and ministers lied again about new additional information. These are yet more errors of judgement. The prime minister has very serious questions to answer. The only way to clear this up is full transparency about who knew what, and when.”
Starmer reportedly defended Mandelson in the House of Commons two days after details of the damning emails between the former ambassador to the US and Jeffrey Epstein were passed to Downing Street.
The prime minister sacked Mandelson on Thursday after emails were published revealing that he had told Epstein “your friends stay with you and love you” while the disgraced financier was facing jail for sex offences.
The Foreign Office received a media enquiry outlining details of the messages on Tuesday, which was passed to No 10, PA Media and the Times reported.
The permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office, Oliver Robbins, allegedly asked Mandelson about the veracity of the emails but did not receive a response until Wednesday afternoon, a government source told PA (you can read more in this story by my colleague Donna Ferguson).
An image of Peter Mandelson in a white dressing gown laughing with Epstein was included in his 50th birthday book. Photograph: Birthday book
The friendship between Epstein and Mandelson has come back into the spotlight after Democratic members of the US House oversight committee released Epstein’s 50th “birthday book”, in which Mandelson called him “my best pal” in a handwritten note.
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Updated at 11.21 BST
‘Highly unlikely’ Mandelson would have been appointed if Epstein information had been known, says Kyle
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg this morning, Peter Kyle said it is “highly unlikely” Peter Mandelson would have been appointed as the UK ambassador to the US “if we had known the information we know now”.
He said the information that has been revealed since is “materially different” to what was understood at the time.
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Updated at 10.46 BST
Starmer’s appointment of Mandelson as US ambassador was ‘worth the risk’ at the time, minister says
Keir Starmer’s judgment has come under serious scrutiny after the prime minister stripped his political ally Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US amid fresh scrutiny over his years-long friendship with Jeffery Epstein, the late convicted child sex offender.
The business secretary, Peter Kyle, has been asked about it during the morning rounds today and defended the prime minister for taking swift action. He said Mandelson’s “singular talents” meant he was deemed “worth the risk” to appoint after two vetting processes turned up information that was already public.
In an interview with Sky News, Kyle insisted it was not correct that Mandelson was appointed ambassador to the US before security checks were completed.
Keir Starmer initially defended Peter Mandelson but removed him from his post on Thursday amid intense media pressure. Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy
“The Cabinet Office did an independent inquiry into the appointment, as they do in every public appointment of this nature, and the information, that was presented to the prime minister.” he told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips.
“The second process was obviously a political process where there are political conversations done in No 10 about all the other aspects of an appointment of this nature.
“Now both of these things turned up information that was already public and a decision was made that based on Peter’s singular talents in this area, that the risk of appointing knowing what was already public was worth the risk.
“Now of course we have seen the emails which were not published at the time, were not public and not even known about, and that has changed the situation.”
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Updated at 11.32 BST
Saturday’s protest should be a ‘klaxon call’ for politicians to ‘redouble efforts to address public’s big concerns’ – minister
The business and trade secretary, Peter Kyle, was asked about the protests again on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg Sunday politics programme. He echoed his earlier comments, saying the demonstration proved that freedom of association and freedom of speech are “alive and well” in the UK.
He said Elon Musk’s comments to the crowd, including that they must “fight back or die” and that “violence is coming”, were “totally inappropriate”.
Kyle said:
I thought they were slightly incomprehensible comments that were totally inappropriate. But what we saw yesterday was over 100,000 people who were expressing freedom of association, freedom of speech and proving that both of those things are alive and well in this country.
A small minority of people who were protesting committed acts of violence against our police for which they should and they will be held accountable.
Peter Kyle was asked by Laura Kuenssberg about the protests yesterday in London. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA
Kuenssberg asks Kyle if it worries him as a senior politician that that number of people would turn out to hear the far-right activist Tommy Robinson speak. He replied:
What worries me most is the divisions in our society, in other societies, in other democratic societies. It is not even the left and the right at the moment. There are communities that are being driven further apart and there are figures such as Tommy Robinson that is able to touch into a sense of disquiet and grievance in our society.
A lot of it goes back to its roots in the financial crisis and the impact it had on communities around the country and we haven’t been able to bring our communities back together again since.
So I think these are moments that are klaxon calls to us in public life to redouble our efforts to address the big concerns that people right across our country have, and immigration is a big concern.
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Updated at 11.33 BST
Sadiq Khan says ‘violence and attacking police officers’ at London rally were ‘completely unacceptable’
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said the pockets of violence at the protest yesterday were “completely unacceptable”.
In a post on X thanking the Metropolitan police for its work, he wrote:
My thanks go to all the officers policing protests today. Most protestors were peaceful, but a number of officers were assaulted and arrests have been made.
Violence and attacking police officers is completely unacceptable.
The Met said 25 people had been arrested for a range of offences in what it described as “wholly unacceptable” violence.
Marchers were arrested for a range of offences, including affray, violent disorder, assaults and criminal damage.
Because of the size of the demonstration, the Met was supported by officers from other forces, including Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Devon and Cornwall.
People march at the Unite the Kingdom rally in central London. Photograph: James Willoughby/SOPA Images/ShutterstockShare
Scale of Tommy Robinson protest shows free speech is ‘alive and well’ in the UK, minister says
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.
At least 25 people were arrested and 26 police officers were injured – including four who were seriously hurt – at Tommy Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” protest in London yesterday, the Metropolitan police said.
The protest, thought to be the largest nationalist event in decades, saw between 110,000 and 150,000 people turn out, significantly exceeding the estimates of organisers. Elsewhere, about 5,000 anti-racism campaigners mounted a counter-protest.
The crowds were addressed by Elon Musk, who dialled in via video link and spoke of “the rapidly increasing erosion of Britain”, before calling for the dissolution of the UK parliament.
Protesters clash with police at far-right rally in London – video
Business and trade secretary Peter Kyle was asked by Sky News’ Trevor Phillips this morning if the demonstration – organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson – “disturbed” him.
Kyle said the number of people who turned out for the protest shows free speech is “alive and well” in the UK.
He explained:
It doesn’t disturb me, because it’s actually proof that we live in a country where free speech, free association, is alive and well.
The bit that disturbs me is that when a minority go to an extreme and end up perpetrating violence against the police. That is unacceptable and those people should and will pay for it.
“The flag was waved quite a lot and I do want to make the point that the flag belongs to all of us,” Kyle added.
“That flag means a lot of different things to a lot of people, but it is about essential British and English values and principles.”
Share