A sea of flags could be seen in the crowd including the St George’s Cross, the Union flag, the Scottish saltire and Welsh dragon.
More than 100,000 people have gathered in London for a what was billed as a free speech rally, spearheaded by Tommy Robinson, that included an appearance from Elon Musk in a live interview broadcast on stage.
The Metropolitan Police said it estimated around 110,000 were in Whitehall for the “Unite the Kingdom” event based on CCTV and police helicopter footage, amid claims from Robinson’s supporters of three million people there.
A sea of flags could be seen in the crowd including the St George’s Cross, the Union flag, the Scottish saltire and Welsh dragon with others carrying wooden crosses with “Christ” written on and singing Christian songs.
Robinson is known in Britain for his long-standing anti-Islamic campaigning, as a controversial figurehead of nationalist sentiment, and more recently has styled himself as an advocate of free speech.
The event comes amid a background of recent growing anti-immigration sentiment, and follows a recent “Raise the Colours“ movement, which has seen Union Jacks and Crosses of St. George hoisted in huge numbers across England.
Chants in support of Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, could be heard alongside chants critical of the prime minister. Police said there had been no incidents of note as the protesters marched from near Waterloo to the south side of Whitehall.
Meanwhile, a counter-protest, dubbed March Against Fascism, organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) is also taking place in London on the north side of Whitehall, with around 5,000 people attending, according to Met estimates.
Robinson said the “revolution is on” in a video posted to X where he claimed his Unite the Kingdom protest was the largest demonstration in British history.
Echoing the themes of other speakers, Musk told the crowd: “I want Britain to remain Britain. I think that has there’s something beautiful about being British. And what I see happening is a destruction of Britain, initially a slow erosion, but a rapidly increasing erosion of Britain, with massive uncontrolled migration.”
Like Robinson, Musk also blamed the government for what is known in England as the grooming gang scandal—the large-scale systematic exploitation and rape of white working class girls by gangs of Pakistani heritage—which occurred over a period of two decades or so under previous administrations.
The grooming gangs scandal has been a key campaigning issue for Robinson for the last decade.
