London police separate rival mass protests amid immigration tensions

London police mounted one of the capital’s biggest public-order operations in years on Saturday, separating tens of thousands of people who poured into central London for rival, politically charged marches over immigration and the war in Gaza. The Metropolitan Police sent 4,000 officers, including reinforcements from outside the capital, and by the end of the day had made 43 arrests.

The largest march was organized by Tommy Robinson, the public name of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and framed around opposition to immigration and what supporters cast as the defense of British identity. Demonstrators waved British and English flags and chanted against immigration as they moved through the city. Across the route, a counter-demonstration brought together anti-fascist and pro-Palestinian activists, with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s rally tied to Nakba Day, the annual commemoration of the 1948 displacement of Palestinians and its 78th anniversary.

The police operation reflected fears that the marches could collide or escalate. The government had already barred 11 people it described as foreign far-right agitators from entering Britain before the Unite the Kingdom march, and it said Saturday was one of the busiest days for policing in recent years. Prime Minister Keir Starmer had condemned the Robinson event in advance, while officials moved to keep outside speakers from joining the rally.

Although police said both protests were largely without significant incident, the Met said 11 of Saturday’s arrests were hate-crime-related, with nine linked to the Unite the Kingdom march and two to the Nakba Day demonstration. The arrests added a further measure of the strain on officers tasked not just with crowd control, but with preventing separate political grievances from spilling into violence.

The scale of the deployment also reflected the memory of Robinson’s previous protest in September, when Reuters said around 150,000 people turned out and clashes left 26 officers injured. Later reporting said four officers were seriously hurt. That history helped explain why the Met prepared so heavily this time, with senior commanders warning before the marches that they would use the most assertive powers available to keep rival groups apart.

The political backdrop remains volatile. Official figures show net migration fell from 906,000 in the year to June 2023 to 728,000 in the year to June 2024, but immigration still dominates parts of Britain’s public debate and feeds support for Reform UK and other nationalist voices. In London, that anger converged with pro-Palestinian mobilization, turning a single Saturday into a demonstration of how migration, identity politics and foreign-policy grievance now overlap on the streets.