At 3pm yesterday, Stephen Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson) handed himself in at Folkestone police station. He was charged and bailed under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, having failed to provide the pin to his mobile phone. However, while at the station Lennon was remanded in custody ahead of a separate contempt of court case, due to take place on Monday at Woolwich Crown Court.
Despite his absence, Lennon’s long-planned Unite The Kingdom rally still took place in central London today, having been rearranged from the original 12 November date. Attracting roughly 15-20,000 people, and without Laurence Fox (who pulled out at the last minute citing concerns around the organisers’ preparations), today’s event was significantly smaller than Lennon’s last event in July, which attracted between 20-30,000.
Across a punishing six hours (though with some gathering two or even three hours before then), the crowd heard from an endless stream of speakers, some of which were dogged by technical problems. Unsurprisingly, the crowd thinned significantly as the day progressed, with the whole event lacking the energy of recent demonstrations.
While the number of attendees remains extremely concerning, the event highlighted the lack of a credible figurehead to step into Lennon’s place should he end up receiving a prolonged prison sentence after his trial next week.
As numbers grew, the crowd began to march down Victoria Street just after 11am, before being halted by police lines. Event organiser Richard Inman (a long-time ally of Lennon) sought to calm the crowds, explaining the stage area wouldn’t be ready until 1:30pm. This meant the increasingly restless crowd were forced to wait around for nearly three hours before the main event even started.
Tommy Robinson supporters begin gathering outside Victoria underground station. (Photo: HOPE not hate)
The march finally set off just before 1pm. At the front were, among others, Inman, Don Keith from the United States, another longtime Lennon ally Guramit Singh, and Paul Thorpe, who together held a banner which read “Two Tier Kier Fuelled The Riots”.
The march is held by police lines. (Photo: HOPE not hate)
Chants of “Starmer is a w**nker”, “Allah, Allah who the f**k is Allah” and “We want Tommy Out”, echoed off the buildings as the march reached Westminster Square.
Following the march, the actual event kicked off with some painful Christian rock from Rikki Doolan of the Spirit Embassy London church in Bruce Grove, Tottenham.
The day was compèred by long standing friend of Lennon, Liam Tuffs, who introduced an exhausting lineup of speakers. These included: the YouTubers Paul Thorpe and Mahyar Tousi, former Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, Charlie Simpson, Richard Inman, Danny Lockwood, Carl Benjamin of the Lotus Eaters, Don Keith, former Reform UK candidate Richard Shaw, the Lennon collaborators Voice of Wales, and Harman Singh.
An interesting difference between this and the July demonstration was the full-throated condemnation of Nigel Farage and Reform UK, stemming from its failure to offer vocal support to Lennon. Ex-Reform UK candidate Richard Shaw and a number of current UKIP members took time to call out Farage. “He has stabbed us all in the back,” shouted Stan Robinson of Voice of Wales before introducing current UKIP leader Nick Tenconi to the stage, who gave an extreme speech calling for mass deportations.
As with other recent demonstrations there was also a speech by a priest, this time from Canon Phil Harris.
In addition, there were a number of international guests including Lutz Bachman from PEGIDA in Germany, Ezra Levant from Rebel Media in Canada and a group of speakers from the French Identitarian group Collectif Némésis.
Supporters of the fascist group, Patriotic Alternative (PA), were seen at today’s rally. (Photo: HOPE not hate)
The crowd included a range of extreme characters, including leader of Patriotic Alternative (PA), Mark Collett, and former British National Party (BNP) member Derek Beackon.
Unsurprisingly, in light of Lennon being detained the event shifted focus, becoming a “Free Tommy” event, with all speakers calling for his release from custody.
As with previous Unite The Kingdom events, the organisers screened a new Lennon-produced documentary, Lawfare. Another endurance test for attendees, Lawfare’s 90 minutes focused on the recent wave of far-right riots with special anger being directed towards Keir Starmer.
All eyes now turn to Lennon’s court case on Monday where he faces two charges of contempt of court which could result in up to four years in prison.
As expected there is already talk of future ‘Free Tommy’ demonstrations, with Tuffs saying that Lennon has called on the crowd to demonstrate outside whichever prison he is held in, should he be found guilty next week.
