On Saturday, more than a hundred thousand people filled the streets of London for the “Unite the Kingdom” rally. Billed as a march for free speech, it quickly revealed its deeper tone: anger at immigration, refugees, and Britain’s changing identity.
Marchers carried the flags of St George and the Union Jack. Their placards spelled out the mood: stop the boats, send them home, save our children. The issue of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats has haunted UK politics for years, and here it was front and centre.
Clashes broke out between the demonstrators and the police. Twenty-six officers were injured, and by Sunday, twenty-four people had been arrested.
It wasn’t just a domestic affair either. Elon Musk appeared by video, calling for regime change in the UK. French far-right politician Eric Zemmour told the crowd Britain and France faced the same “great replacement” of native Europeans by migrants from the global south.
A counter-protest of about five thousand people gathered to defend migrants and push back against hate speech. For a few hours, central London was a battleground of competing visions of Britain.
Who Is Tommy Robinson?
At the centre of it all was Tommy Robinson, the 42-year-old firebrand who called for the rally. His real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and his path to notoriety is anything but ordinary.
He once ran a tanning salon in Luton, a town with a large Muslim population and a history of cultural clashes. In 2009, he founded the English Defence League, a street movement that framed itself as standing up to “radical Islam” but quickly became associated with violent protests.
Robinson has spent time in and out of jail, often for defying court orders or ignoring libel rulings. Most recently, he was imprisoned after repeatedly making false claims about a Syrian refugee, despite being ordered to stop. It was from this case that he promised to hold a free speech rally once his sentence ended.
His fortunes have always swung between the margins and the spotlight. What changed was the digital megaphone. Boosted online by figures like Elon Musk and Steve Bannon, Robinson has become one of the UK’s most recognisable far-right influencers.
Why People Are Angry
The rally didn’t emerge from thin air. Britain is facing economic pressures, rising resentment over housing, and an endless political fight about migration.
In recent months, asylum seekers waiting for their cases to be processed have been housed in hotels at public expense. This has sparked protests outside those very hotels, with residents accusing migrants of straining local services and safety. In July, when an asylum seeker in Epping was accused of sexually assaulting a girl, protests exploded. The accused denied the charge, but the incident became a rallying cry for far-right activists.
Add to this the image of small boats crossing the Channel, broadcast nightly on British TV, and you have a powerful symbol. For many, those boats represent a government that has lost control. Robinson and others have seized that symbol and turned it into a movement.
What This Really Means
The Unite the Kingdom rally shows how immigration has become the lightning rod for a wider sense of frustration. Some are angry about jobs, others about crime, others about culture. But the chants, the signs, and the speakers all point in one direction: the belief that Britain is being changed against the will of its people.
For Tommy Robinson, the rally was a comeback stage. For his opponents, it was proof of a dangerous tide rising in British politics. And for the police, it was a reminder that when these forces collide, the result is often violence.
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