Tensions as three protest marches converge in central London

Three protest marches converged on Whitehall on Saturday as anti-racist activists, relatives of people who died in custody, and supporters of the far-right figure Tommy Robinson held separate demonstrations.

Thousands of Robinson followers were divided from a counter-protest of Stand Up to Racism supporters by barriers, stages and lines of police officers.

Between them was the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC), made up of relatives of people who have died in police custody. Five family members, including a cousin of Chris Kaba, delivered a handwritten note for Keir Starmer to Downing Street after hundreds had walked from Trafalgar Square.

Police made three arrests. The Metropolitan police said there had been a “brief period of pushing and shoving” near the Stand Up to Racism stage and that an officer had been assaulted when “a group from the Stand Up to Racism demonstration tried to push through a cordon at the end of the Mall”.

The other arrests were for a racially aggravated public order offence and for breach of the peace at the Uniting the Kingdom demonstration in support of Robinson, the English Defence League founder who was in custody after being arrested on Friday.

The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is accused of being in contempt of court after the airing of a film at a protest in Trafalgar Square in July.

He went to Folkestone police station on Friday, where he was remanded before a hearing at Woolwich crown court on Monday concerning allegations that he breached a 2021 high court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him.

Robinson was separately charged on Friday with failing to provide his mobile phone access code to police under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, Kent police said.

The campaign group Hope Not Hate estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 people joined the Uniting the Kingdom demonstration on Saturday.

Robinson has recently focused on Peter Lynch, a 61-year-old who died in prison this month having pleaded guilty to violent disorder at the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham during the riots in August.

Lynch, who had four children and three grandchildren, had yelled “scum” and “child killers” at police and was seen holding a placard accusing judges, the World Health Organization and Nasa of corruption.

Some at the Uniting the Kingdom protest wore T-shirts or carried placards saying “I am Peter Lynch”.

After arriving at Parliament Square, supporters stayed to watch a screening of a new documentary by Robinson, which took the place of a stump speech.

Along Whitehall, Stand Up to Racism supporters watched speeches by speakers including the Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Kim Johnson.

Separately, relatives of Kaba joined the UFFC annual remembrance procession at Trafalgar Square. After delivering their message to the prime minister, they said they wanted to remind him of “everybody’s right to life”.

Kaba was shot dead by firearms officer Martyn Blake in 2022 when police tried to stop his car; the officer in question was acquitted of murder last week. It was also reported last week that Kaba had been captured on CCTV days before shooting a man on a nightclub dancefloor.

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, tried to calm police anger that Blake had been put on trial by pledging that firearms officers’ identities would be protected if they are prosecuted, unless they are convicted.

Sheeda Queen, a cousin of Kaba, said Cooper’s measures were “almost like we’re being punished because my cousin’s case got that far within two years.”

Marcia Rigg, the sister of Sean Rigg, who died in police custody in 2008, said they wanted to remind Starmer that “everybody is entitled to their right to life no matter what”.

She said: “If there’s a crime then they go to prison and serve their sentence. Not a death sentence. There is no justice.”