London police mount huge operation as rival protests and cup final clash

Armored vehicles, police horses, dogs, drones and helicopters were sent into central London as the Metropolitan Police mounted a sprawling security operation to keep rival marches apart while Chelsea and Manchester City met at Wembley in the FA Cup final.

The force deployed at least 4,000 officers, with hundreds more on standby, to manage Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally and an annual pro-Palestinian march marking Nakba Day, the commemoration of the 1948 displacement of Palestinians from what is now Israel. Police estimated about 50,000 people would attend the anti-immigration rally and 30,000 the Nakba Day demonstration, creating a day of overlapping mass gatherings across the capital.

Officers were given route controls and gathering-point restrictions to reduce the risk of confrontation. The pro-Palestine march, organised by the Palestine Coalition and Stand Up To Racism, was set to travel from Exhibition Road to Waterloo Place, while police worked to keep marchers separated from Robinson supporters moving through the city. The operation was also shaped by concern that some football fans leaving Wembley after the 3 p.m. kickoff could head straight into the protest zone.

For the first time in a protest-policing deployment, the Met used live facial recognition, positioning cameras in Camden, north London. By early afternoon, police said 11 people had been arrested for a variety of offenses. The force said the operation would cost about £4.5 million, including £1.7 million to bring in officers from other forces, underlining the scale of the logistical burden on London’s policing budget.

The government also moved to limit the risk of imported disorder, blocking 11 foreign nationals from entering the country for the Unite the Kingdom rally. Prosecutors were told by the Crown Prosecution Service to consider whether placards, banners and chants seen on social media could amount to offenses of stirring up hatred, signaling that authorities were treating online material as part of the enforcement picture as well as street behavior.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the Met’s command center with Commissioner Mark Rowley and London Mayor Sadiq Khan before the weekend, as ministers and senior police officers prepared for a day that tested crowd control across central London and Wembley. Justice Secretary David Lammy said authorities would act swiftly if protests turned violent, a warning that reflected how closely the capital was being watched as one of its most demanding public-order operations in years.