Met
police preparing for large scale far-right and pro-Palestine protests in London
Officers
said to be granted extra powers as marches through capital set for same day as
FA Cup final
Vikram
Dodd
Fri 15
May 2026 18.10 BST
British
police are preparing to mount one of their largest scale operations in recent
memory with more than 100,000 protesters set to march through the streets of
London on the same day as the FA Cup final in Wembley.
The
Guardian understands that officers in vast swathes of central London will be
granted extra powers in order to police the far-right Unite the Kingdom march
organised by Stephen Yaxley Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson.
At the
same time, as smaller counter march organised by pro-Palestine protesters will
take place, with the two events to be separated by police.
The scale
of the last UTK march in September stunned both organisers and police with more
than 150,000 joining a crowd that occupied Parliament Square in Westminster.
The prime
minister, Keir Starmer, has said the rise of the far right represented “a fight
for the soul of this country”, and the march comes after Nigel Farage’s Reform
UK won the biggest share of the vote at last week’s English council elections.
Britain’s
largest Muslim group has warned people to avoid central London this weekend
amid fears the second event could reach a similar size.
The
Metropolitan police has 4,000 officers on duty, backed up by armoured Sandcat
vehicles and drones. Most will be deployed to police the UTK march, and keeping
away counter protesters.
The
situation is complicated by the cup final between Manchester City and Chelsea,
which kicks off at 3pm. The Met this week said football hooligans have in the
past supported Robinson, and social media videos features calls for them to
join Saturday’s protest.
The Unite
the Kingdom march last year, which was backed by money from the US, featured
stages where hate speech amplified over Westminster by a string of extremist
participants who denounced Islam and promoted Christian nationalism. Saturday’s
event will see the far right thronging streets that house Britain’s most
powerful institutions in Whitehall.
The
Guardian understands police will try to seek prosecutions not just against
speakers at both marches, but organisers for conspiracy, if comments from the
stage are judged to be inciting hatred.
The
pro-Palestinian rally numbers will be boosted by anti-racists countering the
much larger far-right protest, with numbers expected to be between 15,000 and
40,000.
Police
believe prosecutors are now more likely to agree charges for what they consider
to be antisemitic chants or slogans, with “globalise the intifada” leading to
charges against three people. Previously prosecutors had declined to prosecute
for the slogan.
Planned
to speak at the far-right rally, according to its advertising, is the mother of
a woman killed by an asylum seeker, and the American conspiracy theorist Glenn
Beck, a former anchor on rightwing US channel Fox News, who left amid claims he
was too extreme for the Rupert Murdoch-owned network.
Robinson
went to the US in February where in Washington more than a dozen law makers met
him, and he was also hosted by the US state department. Previously he had been
banned from entering the US because of criminal convictions.
The
promotion material features an AI-generated video that denounces Muslims and
ends with a sequence where Lennon is the hero on stage adored by a crowd of
tens of thousands and contains the line: “Tommy Robinson’s vision, this is our
destiny.”
While the
video for UTK may be AI fantasy, Nick Lowles of Hope Not Hate warned the
reality is that Robinson is popular among a significant minority of Britons.
Polling
shows Lennon is known by more than 80% of respondents, and while the number of
those disliking him is high, 17% like him: “Lennon can put more people on the
streets than any other person. He is a phenomenon,”, said Lowles.
In a
video on Friday, Robinson appealed to officers policing the march not to rush
to draw their batons: “We’re not coming for a big battle … the people that are
there tomorrow, are the people at the school gates with you.”
In
another video he urged supporters to stay calm if provoked and to “win by
smiling at them”, adding: “This is not an event to bring your anger.”
The
Muslim Council of Britain warned the march puts Muslims “at risk of being
subjected to increased violence and hatred”. It said the last event “featured
speakers who openly incited hatred, chanted anti-Muslim slogans and unashamedly
encouraged violence and civil disobedience on Britain’s streets”.
·
Dr Wajid Akhter, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain said:
“Nobody should be forced to walk Britain’s streets in fear of their safety. But
when irresponsible political rhetoric, toxic social media algorithms and double
standards in policing continue to act as enabling factors for open racism, and
violence is promoted on Britain’s streets, the downward spiral will
accelerate.”
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