Police are searching for a man who called for Keir Starmer to be killed during Saturday’s “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London, with further arrests expected in the coming days after outbreaks of violence.
Scotland Yard estimated that between 110,000 and 150,000 people attended the far-right event, organised by the activist known as Tommy Robinson.
A total of 26 police officers were injured in clashes as projectiles were hurled, and the Metropolitan police said on Sunday that 24 people were arrested for a range of alleged offences including common assault and violent disorder.
The force said a post-event investigation was under way, with officers working to identify other people involved in disorder with a view to making further arrests.
The oldest person arrested was 58, the youngest 19, and the average age of those arrested was 39. Three of those arrested at the protest were women.
A man who said on camera that “Keir Starmer needs to be assassinated” and “someone needs to shoot Keir Starmer”, and whose comments were published online, is among those being sought by police.
A Met spokesperson said: “We’re aware of a video circulating on social media from the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ protest on Saturday. Officers are investigating and enquiries are ongoing to identify a man.”
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was among those who addressed the crowds from a stage, along with a range of other far-right figures. However, there were no-shows by promised speakers including Steve Bannon, a former strategist for Donald Trump, and Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and culture warrior.
Speakers included the owner of X, Elon Musk, who claimed a “dissolution of parliament” was needed and said “massive uncontrolled migration” was contributing to the “destruction of Britain”, in comments made via video link.
Others who appeared on the same stage included the former Reform UK deputy leader Ben Habib, who is setting up a rival party to the right of Reform known as Advance UK, which Robinson says he has joined. European far-right figures including the former French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour and Danish and German parliamentarians also took part.
Hope Not Hate described it as Britain’s largest-ever far-right protest. Joe Mulhall, the counter-extremism campaign group’s director of research, said it was concerning that such a big crowd had come together to cheer speakers who called for the banning of all public expression of non-Christian religions, demanded the “remigration” of legal migrants, pushed Covid conspiracy theories, and claimed Britain was being “invaded” and its population “replaced”.
“This was unprecedented,” he said. “The messages that were coming from the stage and radicalisation of that crowd are a step change even from the days of the English Defence League.
“The EDL might have been more violent but what we are now seeing is something that has broadened out from a street movement into a much wider attack on everything from multiculturalism to LGBT rights.
“The language from the speakers and the reception from the crowd were for positions that we might have regarded as being on the ‘extreme’ of the far right in the past, but it’s worrying now that it’s becoming almost normalised,” Mulhall added. “We’re also even seeing in some sections of the media a pushback against the fact that this was a far-right rally.”
The rally was opposed by a smaller counter-protest organised by Stand Up to Racism, which estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 had taken part. Organisers said some of them were assaulted and were hit by projectiles.
At one point the counter-demonstration was broken into two parts while Robinson supporters who had blocked the opposing protesters from leaving Whitehall had to be moved by police.
Robinson’s next moves are unclear although there is potential for a political route via his association with Advance UK, which would be eager to capitalise on the block of support Robinson is able to mobilise and that could eat into Reform UK’s support.
However, his past forays into politics have not been successful. Robinson, who was a member of the British National party in the past, won only 2.2% of the vote and lost his £5,000 deposit when he stood in north-west England in elections for the European parliament in 2019.
He has already indicated that he plans to organise another big rally in future but has not given further details.