By Yann Tessier and Marissa Davison
LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday in two separate protests – one against high levels of immigration and the other in support of the Palestinians.
Police deployed 4,000 officers, including reinforcements from outside the capital, and promised ‘the most assertive use possible of our powers’ in what it called its biggest public order operation in years.
Shortly after the start of the two marches, police reported that they had made 11 arrests for a range of offences. The forecast was an attendance of at least 80,000 people.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused organizers of Friday’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march of ‘propagating hatred and division, plain and simple’.
The march was organized by anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson. The government has banned 11 people it described as ‘foreign far-right agitators’ from entering the UK to take part in the protest.
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A previous protest led by Robinson in September drew around 150,000 people, police said, and featured a video speech by US technology billionaire Elon Musk. More than 20 people have been arrested, and police are still looking for more than 50 suspects.
Annual net migration approached 900,000 in 2022 and 2023, but fell to around 200,000 last year following tighter work visa rules.
Pro-Palestinian protesters
Nearby, pro-Palestinian protesters held a march to mark Nakba Day, about the loss of land by Palestinians in the 1948 war that followed the creation of Israel. ‘Nakba’ means catastrophe in Arabic.
The march also attracted those opposed to the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration, alongside predominantly Palestinian flags.
London has recently been the scene of a series of arson attacks on Jewish sites, and two Jewish men were stabbed last month in an incident that is being treated as terrorism.
Police said the repeated large pro-Palestinian marches – 33 since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023 – have left many Jews feeling too intimidated to enter central London.
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Some protesters on Saturday shouted ‘Death to the IDF’, referring to the Israeli army – language that police said had previously been the reason for arrests when directed at Jews.
(Additional reporting by Chris Radcliffe)
