Scale of Tommy Robinson protest shows free speech is ‘alive and well’ in the UK, minister says
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.
At least 25 people were arrested and 26 police officers were injured – including four who were seriously hurt – at Tommy Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” protest in London yesterday, the Metropolitan police said.
The protest, thought to be the largest nationalist event in decades, saw between 110,000 and 150,000 people turn out, significantly exceeding the estimates of organisers. Elsewhere, about 5,000 anti-racism campaigners mounted a counter-protest.
The crowds were addressed by Elon Musk, who dialled in via video link and spoke of “the rapidly increasing erosion of Britain”, before calling for the dissolution of the UK parliament.
Protesters clash with police at far-right rally in London – video
Business and trade secretary Peter Kyle was asked by Sky News’ Trevor Phillips this morning if the demonstration – organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson – “disturbed” him.
Kyle said the number of people who turned out for the protest shows free speech is “alive and well” in the UK.
He explained:
It doesn’t disturb me, because it’s actually proof that we live in a country where free speech, free association, is alive and well.
The bit that disturbs me is that when a minority go to an extreme and end up perpetrating violence against the police. That is unacceptable and those people should and will pay for it.
“The flag was waved quite a lot and I do want to make the point that the flag belongs to all of us,” Kyle added.
“That flag means a lot of different things to a lot of people, but it is about essential British and English values and principles.”
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Shadow education secretary says ‘full transparency’ is needed over Mandelson’s appointment
Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, said there must be “full transparency” from the government about what (vetting) advice went to Keir Starmer and at what point.
She said the Conservative party will use all means available to them to “force this information into light to expose what is going on at the heart of government”.
Trott said:
We know that Bloomberg put these allegations to the Foreign Office on Tuesday. I’ve been in Number 10 – there is no way that is not then reported into Number 10.
This is what we’re going to be pushing for next week, and if you’re a Labour MP watching this now, you should be pushing for it too, because we will use every mechanism that is available to us to force the truth to come out.
We need these documents. We need to understand what advice went to the prime minister and when who made these decisions.
How have we ended up in a situation where the advice for the prime minister is to appoint the best pal of a convicted paedophile to be US ambassador?
It is unacceptable. The British public will not have this, and the Conservative party will make sure that we get answers.
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Updated at 11.51 CEST
Kemi Badenoch accused Keir Starmer and Labour MPs of “lying to the whole country about what they knew regarding Mandelson’s involvement with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein”.
The Tory leader wrote on X: “If No 10 had those emails for 48 hours before acting, it means he lied at PMQs and ministers lied again about new additional information. These are yet more errors of judgement. The prime minister has very serious questions to answer. The only way to clear this up is full transparency about who knew what, and when.”
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Updated at 11.47 CEST
‘Highly unlikely’ Mandelson would have been appointed if Epstein information had been known, says Kyle
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg this morning, Peter Kyle said it is “highly unlikely” Peter Mandelson would have been appointed as the UK ambassador to the US “if we had known the information we know now”.
He said the information that has been revealed since is “materially different” to what was understood at the time.
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Updated at 11.46 CEST
Starmer’s appointment of Mandelson as US ambassador was ‘worth the risk’ at the time, minister says
Keir Starmer’s judgment has come under serious scrutiny after the prime minister stripped his political ally Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US amid fresh scrutiny over his years-long friendship with Jeffery Epstein, the late convicted child sex offender.
The business secretary, Peter Kyle, has been asked about it during the morning rounds today and defended the prime minister for taking swift action. He said Mandelson’s “singular talents” meant he was deemed “worth the risk” to appoint after two vetting processes turned up information that was already public.
In an interview with Sky News, Kyle insisted it was not correct that Mandelson was appointed ambassador to the US before security checks were completed.
Keir Starmer initially defended Peter Mandelson but removed him from his post on Thursday amid intense media pressure. Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy
“The Cabinet Office did an independent inquiry into the appointment, as they do in every public appointment of this nature, and the information, that was presented to the prime minister.” he told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips.
“The second process was obviously a political process where there are political conversations done in No 10 about all the other aspects of an appointment of this nature.
“Now both of these things turned up information that was already public and a decision was made that based on Peter’s singular talents in this area, that the risk of appointing knowing what was already public was worth the risk.
“Now of course we have seen the emails which were not published at the time, were not public and not even known about, and that has changed the situation.”
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Updated at 11.39 CEST
Saturday’s protest should be a ‘klaxon call’ for politicians to ‘redouble efforts to address public’s big concerns’, minister says
The business and trade secretary, Peter Kyle, was asked about the protests again on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg Sunday politics programme. He echoed his earlier comments, saying the demonstration proved that freedom of association and freedom of speech are “alive and well” in the UK.
He said Elon Musk’s comments to the crowd, including that they must “fight back or die” and that “violence is coming”, were “totally inappropriate”.
Kyle said:
I thought they were slightly incomprehensible comments that were totally inappropriate. But what we saw yesterday was over 100,000 people who were expressing freedom of association, freedom of speech and proving that both of those things are alive and well in this country.
A small minority of people who were protesting committed acts of violence against our police for which they should and they will be held accountable.
Peter Kyle was asked by Laura Kuenssberg about the protests yesterday in London. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA
Kuenssberg asks Kyle if it worries him as a senior politician that that number of people would turn out to hear the far-right activist Tommy Robinson speak. He replied:
What worries me most is the divisions in our society, in other societies, in other democratic societies. It is not even the left and the right at the moment. There are communities that are being driven further apart and there are figures such as Tommy Robinson that is able to touch into a sense of disquiet and grievance in our society.
A lot of it goes back to its roots in the financial crisis and the impact it had on communities around the country and we haven’t been able to bring our communities back together again since.
So I think these are moments that are klaxon calls to us in public life to redouble our efforts to address the big concerns that people right across our country have, and immigration is a big concern.
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Updated at 11.25 CEST
Sadiq Khan says ‘violence and attacking police officers’ at London rally were ‘completely unacceptable’
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said the pockets of violence at the protest yesterday were “completely unacceptable”.
In a post on X thanking the Metropolitan police for its work, he wrote:
My thanks go to all the officers policing protests today. Most protestors were peaceful, but a number of officers were assaulted and arrests have been made.
Violence and attacking police officers is completely unacceptable.
The Met said 25 people had been arrested for a range of offences in what it described as “wholly unacceptable” violence.
Marchers were arrested for a range of offences, including affray, violent disorder, assaults and criminal damage.
Because of the size of the demonstration, the Met was supported by officers from other forces, including Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Devon and Cornwall.
People march at the Unite the Kingdom rally in central London. Photograph: James Willoughby/SOPA Images/ShutterstockShare
Scale of Tommy Robinson protest shows free speech is ‘alive and well’ in the UK, minister says
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.
At least 25 people were arrested and 26 police officers were injured – including four who were seriously hurt – at Tommy Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” protest in London yesterday, the Metropolitan police said.
The protest, thought to be the largest nationalist event in decades, saw between 110,000 and 150,000 people turn out, significantly exceeding the estimates of organisers. Elsewhere, about 5,000 anti-racism campaigners mounted a counter-protest.
The crowds were addressed by Elon Musk, who dialled in via video link and spoke of “the rapidly increasing erosion of Britain”, before calling for the dissolution of the UK parliament.
Protesters clash with police at far-right rally in London – video
Business and trade secretary Peter Kyle was asked by Sky News’ Trevor Phillips this morning if the demonstration – organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson – “disturbed” him.
Kyle said the number of people who turned out for the protest shows free speech is “alive and well” in the UK.
He explained:
It doesn’t disturb me, because it’s actually proof that we live in a country where free speech, free association, is alive and well.
The bit that disturbs me is that when a minority go to an extreme and end up perpetrating violence against the police. That is unacceptable and those people should and will pay for it.
“The flag was waved quite a lot and I do want to make the point that the flag belongs to all of us,” Kyle added.
“That flag means a lot of different things to a lot of people, but it is about essential British and English values and principles.”
Share