Thousands of police officers will be deployed in London for Tommy Robinson's rally

Tommy Robinson's 'Unite the Kingdom' rally is so controversial that the British government has deployed the latest surveillance technology against attendees and banned speakers from entering the country. What are they so scared of?

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected at the Unite the Kingdom rally in London on Saturday, where they will march through the streets of the British capital to government buildings at Whitehall. The rally is expected to be the largest right-wing gathering in the UK this year, as public anger against Prime Minister Keir Starmer builds on both sides of the political spectrum.

What is Unite the Kingdom?

The first Unite the Kingdom rally took place in July 2024. Riding a wave of right-wing anger - amplified by the stabbing of three children by a teenager of Rwandan descent two days later - organizer Tommy Robinson held further events that October, and in September 2025.

Last year's rally took place after a wave of protests and riots at hotels housing asylum seekers, and included speeches from French Reconquete (Reconquest) leader Eric Zemmour, Polish Law and Justice MEP Dominik Tarczynski, and Elon Musk, who addressed demonstrators via video link.

Described by the media as "anti-Islam," "far-right," and "xenophobic," the rally drew attendees frustrated with rising immigration, the growing influence of Islam in British politics, and Starmer's response to earlier protests and riots - which involved jailing hundreds of people for online speech and advancing a draconian online censorship bill.

This year's protest promises much of the same, although Unite the Kingdom's website is opaque about the nature of the event. The rally will "bring UK citizens together in London for a peaceful, people-led assembly focused on unity, awareness, and collective responsibility," the site states. "The event is designed to provide a safe and respectful space for individuals to come together, connect with one another, and stand united on the issues affecting our nation."

How many people will take part in Unite the Kingdom?

London's Metropolitan Police expect around 50,000 people to attend the rally, but organizers expect many times that number. Unite the Kingdom's organizers claim that a million people took part in last year's rally, but police put the figure at 150,000.

Is Unite the Kingdom violent?

Twenty-three people were arrested at last year's protest, the majority for assault, disorder, and obstructing police officers. Minor scuffles broke out between protesters, police, and left-wing counterprotesters, and one left-wing demonstrator was also detained.

These numbers paled in comparison to the 423 arrests made two weeks earlier at the Notting Hill Carnival, an annual celebration of black and Caribbean culture in London. The violence at Notting Hill received almost no media coverage, while headlines used to describe Unite the Kingdom included "Tommy Robinson protesters attack police" and "Far right's show of force leaves Met desperately kettling counter-protesters."

Who is Tommy Robinson?

Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) has been a fixture on the British right for decades. After a youth spent racking up a petty criminal record in the anti-Islam 'English Defence League', Robinson reinvented himself as a filmmaker, free speech activist, and crusader against Islamic immigration after breaking with the EDL in 2013.

In the years since, Robinson has been jailed for filming alleged members of a Pakistani rape gang during their trial, and for falsely claiming that a Syrian refugee in a Yorkshire secondary school had a history of assaulting female students. Robinson was arrested as he attempted to leave England the day after the 2024 Unite the Kingdom rally and imprisoned for airing a documentary containing the allegations about the Syrian refugee at the protest.

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Robinson is a vocal supporter of Israel, and has received substantial funding from the Middle East Forum, a pro-Israel think tank, and American billionaire Robert Shillman, who sits on the board of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. Right-wing opponents of Robinson say that he does Israel's bidding by focusing his activism solely on Islam, rather than on third-word migration more broadly.

What is timely about the Unite the Kingdom rally?

The rally takes place one week after Starmer's Labour Party suffered an historic defeat in local elections across England. Labour lost almost 1,500 seats, 60% of the seats it was defending, and Starmer - the most unpopular prime minister in modern British history - heads into the weekend embroiled in a leadership contest after refusing to resign.

Nigel Farage's Reform UK was the biggest winner in the local elections, picking up 1,492 seats - almost as many as Labour lost. For Starmer, the sight of tens of thousands of right-wingers marching in London can only add insult to injury.

How is the government preparing for the rally?

Robinson and his supporters will face an unprecedented police presence on Saturday. Some 4,000 Metropolitan Police officers will be deployed on the streets of the capital in riot gear, with armed response units on standby. Mounted units, dog units, and undercover detectives will be active, while drones will be used to monitor the crowds from above.

Facial recognition cameras will be installed in areas where attendees are expected to gather before the rally, "comparing the faces of those walking past, with the faces of those on a specific watchlist," police spokesman James Harman said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"If hate speech is used at the rally, we, the police will intervene," Harman added, warning that "both the speakers and the organizers will face consequences if that happens."

Starmer has banned 11 speakers from entering the UK, including Belgian nationalist politician Filip Dewinter, Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek, and American pro-MAGA commentator Valentina Gomez. "We will not allow people to come to the UK to threaten our communities and spread hate on our streets," he said in a speech on Monday, describing those targeted as "far-right agitators."

"Starmer has just admitted he banned me and other commentators from traveling to the UK because we would 'set back communities'," Vlaardingerbroek said in response to the ban. "Yet mass third-world migration doesn't bother him as it only sets back the one community he doesn't give a rat's ass about: the White native population."

Is there a counterprotest?

Previous Unite the Kingdom rallies have been met by smaller crowds of left-wing counterprotesters. This year, the march takes place on the same day as a pro-Palestine rally marking 'Nakba Day', which commemorates the expulsion of Palestinians from their territory in what is now the state of Israel.

The Nakba Day march was not organized to oppose Unite the Kingdom, although some groups attending the pro-Palestine rally say they're doing so both to support the Palestinian cause and oppose Robinson's "hate march."

The Metropolitan Police will not scan Nakba Day protesters with facial recognition cameras, although Harman has warned that speakers and participants at the rally will "face consequences" if they use "hateful" slogans such as "intifada" or "death to the IDF."

Unite the Kingdom supporters have accused Starmer and the Met of "two-tier" policing - using harsher measures against them than the counter-protesters

However, the speech restrictions deployed against both gatherings illustrates why Starmer is so despised by both the right and left. After his 2024 crackdown on anti-immigration speech, Starmer listed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, arrested thousands of protesters for voicing support for said organization, and called for the "policing of language" and banning of anti-Israel protests.

If any common ground exists between Tommy Robinson's marchers and the pro-Palestine crowd, it's in their mutual resentment of Starmer's government, which will be on full display in London this weekend.