A mass far-right rally organized by notorious convicted extremist Tommy Robinson in central London has sparked widespread outrage across British Muslim communities and political circles, with critics slamming the UK government for its failure to publicly denounce virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric delivered from the event’s main stage.
Held Saturday and drawing an estimated crowd of 60,000 attendees, the “Unite the Kingdom” rally was led by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known by his pseudonym Tommy Robinson — a far-right activist with a long rap sheet that includes convictions for violence, fraud, and contempt of court. Footage captured at the event captured Robinson making a series of inflammatory, anti-Muslim remarks: he told attendees he would “stop Islam” if he took national power, called for a mass “remigration” policy that would force ethnic and religious minorities out of the country, and demanded the military be deployed to remove migrants from government-funded accommodation hotels. Robinson went even further, declaring publicly that “it’s time for many Muslims to leave this country,” and urged the gathered crowd to prepare for what he framed as a coming “battle of Britain.”
Robinson was not the only speaker to spread anti-Muslim animus at the rally. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, who goes by the name Posie Parker and leads a small fringe group called the Party of Women, told the crowd that “it is not too late to get Islam out of every single official office in this country… we have to remove Islam from every single place of authority.” In a widely condemned stunt, three members of French anti-Islam far-right group Collectif Nemesis took the stage wearing full burqas as a deliberate mockery of Muslim women who choose to wear the Islamic veil. Alice Cordier, the group’s founder, told the crowd the movement stands “alone against the system that wants to destroy our Christian civilisation,” doubling down on the group’s open anti-migrant and Islamophobic ideology.
In the aftermath of the rally, Muslim civil society organizations and cross-party political figures have launched sharp criticism of the UK government, which has not issued any formal condemnation of the anti-Muslim remarks made from the stage. While Prime Minister Keir Starmer did criticize the rally in advance of the event, warning “I will not let the likes of Tommy Robinson use their hate to drag our country backwards,” no senior minister has publicly addressed the specific hate speech delivered during the gathering.
Independent Member of Parliament Ayoub Khan, speaking to independent news outlet Middle East Eye, rejected attempts to frame the remarks as ordinary heated political debate, arguing that the comments amounted to open, public anti-Muslim agitation. “Any government that fails to respond decisively to such rhetoric is failing in its basic duty to protect equal citizenship and public safety,” Khan said. “Ministers cannot claim to oppose extremism while remaining silent as an entire minority community is demonised in plain sight.”
Fellow MP Iqbal Mohamed echoed that criticism, noting that speakers faced no immediate pushback from the government after calling for the exclusion of Muslims from public life, demanding Muslims leave the country, and mocking Muslim women’s religious clothing. “That tells you all you need to know about this government’s stated commitment to combatting Islamophobia,” Mohamed said, adding that political leaders have a clear responsibility to speak out consistently and take meaningful action against all forms of bigotry, including anti-Muslim hate.
Baroness Shaista Gohir, a member of the House of Lords and CEO of Muslim Women’s Network UK, condemned the burqa mocking stunt as a deliberate act of public humiliation. “It was deliberate humiliation of Muslim women and a public display of anti-Muslim hostility aimed at dehumanising visibly Muslim women and reducing their religious dress to a source of ridicule and contempt,” Gohir said. “Such stunts have a direct and harmful impact on the safety and well-being of Muslim women.”
Leading national Muslim organizations have amplified these calls for action, demanding the Metropolitan Police launch a full investigation into the rally speakers’ comments as potential incitement to religious hatred. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the UK’s largest umbrella group for Muslim communities, said Robinson’s remarks were not protected political speech — they were criminal incitement. The group questioned why this virulent hate targeting Muslims is tolerated, when comparable rhetoric directed at any other minority community would almost certainly result in prosecution and immediate political condemnation.
The Muslim Engagement and Development Initative (Mend) also condemned the rally’s rhetoric as incitement to religious hatred and violence against British Muslims, and announced it would file a formal request with the Metropolitan Police to obtain the force’s internal legal assessment explaining why no rally speakers had been arrested on hate crime charges. Thus far, Metropolitan Police have confirmed 20 total arrests were made at the rally, nine of which were for alleged hate crimes — but none of those arrests targeted the event’s featured speakers.
The criticism over government silence comes amid ongoing scrutiny of UK policing and political responses to protests, with critics pointing to a stark contrast in how the government and police handled a simultaneous pro-Palestine Nakba Day march also held in London the same day. Three arrests were made at the pro-Palestine gathering: one for carrying a sign reading “Globalise the intifada” (a slogan recently criminalized under UK public order law), a second for a sign reading “We will not surrender, victory or martyrdom,” and a third for displaying support for Palestine Action, a direct action group the government banned as a terrorist organization last year.
Ahead of the far-right rally, the government had announced it had barred 11 foreign far-right agitators from entering the UK to attend the event, including high-profile Colombian-American anti-Muslim campaigner Valentina Gomez. Middle East Eye, which first reported on the post-rally criticism, has reached out to the Metropolitan Police for comment on the calls for an investigation into the rally speakers’ remarks, and had not received a response as of publication.