Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday in a rally organized by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, setting off sporadic clashes with the police and putting the British capital further on edge, as Elon Musk told the crowd via a video link to “fight back” against left-wing violence.
Thousands of antiracism protesters massed in a counter-demonstration away from the far-right marchers. About 1,000 police officers set up barriers between the dueling protests near the Houses of Parliament.
Some far-right protesters battled with the police after trying to breach the barriers. The Metropolitan Police said that its officers had been assaulted and struck by bottles and that it had brought in reinforcements on horses to keep the crowd back. Video shared by the Metropolitan Police showed protesters skirmishing with officers, who said they had arrested nine people by 5 p.m.
Earlier, under the banner “Unite the Kingdom,” they marched across the Thames and past Big Ben, a sea of Union Jacks and English and Scottish flags rippling amid sporadic gusty downpours. Some carried placards calling for the deportation of asylum seekers who cross the English Channel in small boats.
It was a muscular display of support for Mr. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. A divisive figure who has roamed the fringes of the British right for decades, he has served multiple prison sentences, most recently after being sentenced to 18 months in 2024 for defying a court order by repeating false claims about a teenage Syrian refugee who had sued him for libel.
Mr. Robinson, 42, was released in May after a court reduced his sentence to seven months. He vowed then to organize a free-speech festival for his supporters, which took on greater resonance after the fatal shooting of the American right-wing activist Charlie Kirk this week on a college campus in Utah.
The organizers listed Stephen K. Bannon, former chief strategist to President Trump, as one of the speakers. On Thursday, however, Mr. Bannon said he had opted to stay in the United States to host his podcast, “War Room,” from Utah, before heading to Arizona, where Mr. Kirk lived with his family.
Early in his career, Mr. Robinson founded the English Defence League, a nationalist, anti-Muslim group known for its violent street protests in the late 2000s and 2010s. His profile has waxed and waned since then, but it got a lift in the last year because of Mr. Musk, who has championed him on social media, pinning the slogan “Free Tommy Robinson” to his feed on X.
Mr. Robinson was barred from the platform in 2018, when it was still known as Twitter, for breaching rules on “hateful conduct.” The following year, his accounts on Facebook and Instagram were also banned.
After Mr. Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X, Mr. Robinson’s account was reinstated. On Saturday, Mr. Robinson boasted about the size of the crowd — “MILLIONS,” he claimed — and posted a video clip of a young Frenchman, wearing a Union Jack bucket hat, who said he had attended in “homage to Charlie Kirk,” adding, “we support you across the sea.”
Mr. Musk was the rally’s biggest draw, appearing on a large screen to tell the crowd that “there’s got to be a change of government in Britain.” British people, he said, are “scared to exercise their free speech.”
The police estimated the turnout at 110,000, according to The Guardian, though crowd sizes are traditionally difficult to estimate, while the counterprotest drew about 5,000. Video footage showed the main protest surrounding a large movie theater in Waterloo and later stretching along several city blocks.
Mr. Robinson acknowledged that frustration was spilling out among protesters. “We are asking all of you, everyone who is understandably frustrated, to please remain calm and peaceful,” he posted. “Let’s keep things safe and civil.”
The Metropolitan Police had taken extraordinary precautions to prepare for the rally, recruiting 500 officers from around the country to reinforce its ranks in London, and tried to assuage concerns about violence or discrimination against Muslim residents during the rally.
“We recognize that there are particular concerns for many in London’s Muslim communities ahead of the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ protest given the record of anti-Muslim rhetoric and incidents of offensive chanting by a minority at previous marches,” Cmdr. Clair Haynes, who is overseeing the security operation, said in a statement.
“Officers will take a firm line on behavior that is discriminatory or that crosses the line from protest into hate crime,” she added.
The police came under pressure last weekend after they arrested more than 800 people at a rally in support of the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action, which has been banned by the British government under terrorism laws.
The police rounded up more than 800 protesters, including older people, under the laws, which criminalize the wearing, display or publication of anything that “arouses reasonable suspicion” of support for a banned group.
The arrests sharpened a debate in Britain over free speech, which both Mr. Robinson and critics on the left claim is being suppressed.
Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
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