Tens of thousands turn out for central London rally against the far right |
Tens of thousands of people marched through central London Saturday to protest against the far right, weeks ahead of local elections and six months after Britain saw one of its largest far-right demonstrations.
Organized by hundreds of civic groups, including trade unions, anti-racism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, Saturday’s Together Alliance event was billed as the biggest in UK history to counter right-wing extremism.
Some leading British Jewish groups accused the march organizers of failing to include the Jewish community in its demonstration, although several left-wing Jewish organizations did take part, marching together as a bloc.
A separate pro-Palestinian march organized by the Palestine Coalition also converged with the main rally at the end of its route. Many in its contingent carried Iranian flags and signs demanding an end to the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
While organizers claimed half a million had turned out in total, the police gave a figure of around 50,000.
Protesters carrying placards with slogans like “no to racism” and “you cannot divide us” marched from near Marble Arch to Whitehall near the UK parliament for a planned rally featuring various speakers.
They included left-wing politicians like Zack Polanski, leader of the increasingly popular Green Party, singer Billy Bragg and members of English reggae band UB40.
“Days like this are here to send a message… we are unstoppable,” Polanski told the event, which appeared to have attracted people of all ages from across Britain.
Student Emily Roth told AFP there was “a global toxic climate and the UK is not fighting it.”
“The government is obsessed with immigration but that’s not our biggest problem,” the 23-year-old said as she walked the route.
The London Metropolitan Police, which had promised a “significant policing presence” to ensure various protests passed off safely and lawfully, later said officers had made 25 arrests.
It noted 18 of those followed a protest near the Together Alliance rally in support of Palestine Action, an activist group banned under anti-terror law.
England’s High Court ruled last month that the government’s ban on Palestine Action was unlawful, and police briefly stopped arresting those who showed support for it. But last week, the police announced that arrests would resume until the court ruled on an appeal filed against the ruling.
Of the other seven arrests, the police said two people were arrested for scaling the columns outside the National Gallery. It did not immediately provide a reason for the other five arrests.
The Together Alliance march followed a rally organized last September by far-right activist Tommy Robinson that drew up to 150,000 people, many of whom draped themselves in English and British flags.
That event was marred on its fringes by what police called “unacceptable violence” which saw clashes with officers that left several of them seriously injured.
Robinson is planning a follow-up rally in mid-May.
Saturday’s march also came less than six weeks before voters head to the polls for elections to Scotland’s parliament, the devolved assembly in Wales and local councils in London as well as some other parts of England.
Anti-immigration figurehead Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party, which has been leading in national polls for over a year, is predicted to perform well across the contests.
Robert Gadwick, 48, who had travelled from Bath in western England for Saturday’s march, said he was “worried” about Reform’s rise.
“We’ve been there with Brexit — it’s all the same lies and yet some people decide to believe it,” he told AFP.
“We need to speak the truth… voting for Reform is a vote for more chaos and more uncertainty and we certainly don’t need more chaos.”
Retiree Rose Batterfield, of central England, echoed the sentiment, saying the “current political climate” concerned her.
“I don’t really recognize Labour anymore,” she said of the country’s centre-left ruling party which has been criticized for shifting to the right.
“The idea that you can implement far-right ideas in order to stop the far right is nonsense.”
Jewish groups raise concerns, others join march
Ahead of Saturday’s march, several leading Jewish groups raised concerns about the nature of the demonstration, alleging that the Jewish community had been shut out of the event.
The senior vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Adrian Cohen, told GB News on Friday that the Jewish community has a long history of taking a stand against “extremism of all stripes.”
While concerned about the activities of the far-right, he said, British Jews are also concerned “about extremism on the far-left.”
“Often those who are on the left of the political spectrum, who are organizing to oppose activities of the far-right, nevertheless don’t have in mind the concerns and interests of the communities who are under threat from racism, including, in this case, antisemitism,” Cohen said.
Board of Deputies Senior Vice President Adrian Cohen spoke to @GBNEWS’ @MartinDaubney this afternoon about the failure of the Together Alliance to engage with mainstream Jewish organisations ahead of this Saturday's march against the far-right. pic.twitter.com/BcC9Be0eFl — Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) March 27, 2026
Board of Deputies Senior Vice President Adrian Cohen spoke to @GBNEWS’ @MartinDaubney this afternoon about the failure of the Together Alliance to engage with mainstream Jewish organisations ahead of this Saturday's march against the far-right. pic.twitter.com/BcC9Be0eFl
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) March 27, 2026
He said that following the Hamas October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and the ensuing war, which sparked a wave of antisemitic incidents globally, the biggest concern for the UK’s Jewish community has been “far-left agitation.”
He said that the simultaneous pro-Palestinian “feeder march” that would be joining the larger Together Alliance protest also complicated matters for the Jewish community.
There would be a “number of groups” participating whose “focus is anti-Israel, rather than creating bridges, putting their arms out to embrace our community, which is feeling very vulnerable and isolated for very good reasons at the present time,” Cohen said.
Despite the concerns of some, other left-wing Jewish organizations did choose to take part in the demonstrations, including Jewish Voice for Liberation, the Jewish Socialists’ Group, and Vahavta UK. The Great Yiddish Parade, a British Jewish musical group, was also in attendance, playing music as the Jewish groups marched together as a bloc.
A number of Jewish people also attended a nearby counterprotest in opposition to the march’s alliance with pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel groups.
Nearby event honors killed Iranian leader
Elsewhere in London, a large group of counter-protesters gathered outside the Islamic Center of England in Maida Vale as people took part in a memorial service for former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli offensive against Iran on February 28.
The event did not appear to have any connection to the Together Alliance protest several miles away, although there too, protesters were spotted waving the flag of the Iranian regime.
The Islamic Center of England has long been accused of being a mouthpiece of the Iranian regime, and in 2020 held a similar memorial service for the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Qasem Soleimani, after he was assassinated by the US.
According to the Daily Mail, there was a heavy police presence at the event in order to keep the two sides separate.
Many of the counter-protesters waved the pre-Iranian Revolution sun and lion flag, and others held pictures of the exiled crown prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi.
Across the street, mourners waved the Iranian flag and held images of Khamenei and his son, the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his appointment.
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Board of Deputies of British Jews