The anti-fascist counter-protesters who had turned out to oppose Saturday’s far-right march in central London had not anticipated being unable to leave.
But more than six hours after they first gathered, they were trapped, surrounded on all sides by their opponents, who were kept at bay by lines of riot police.
Seeking violence, many of the protesters who attended the “unite the kingdom” march splintered off from the main 110,000-strong group after the initial march, catching the police off-guard by filing down side streets off Whitehall.
When they came up behind the counter-protesters to take over Trafalgar Square, they cut off the only exit.
Mounted police hold back protesters at the ‘unite the kingdom’ rally on Whitehall. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/EPA
One officer said the police were “being attacked on all fronts” as they were almost overwhelmed by the masses of aggressive supporters of the far-right agitator Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson.
The officer said colleagues had needed to urgently scramble to bring their helmets and shields to the frontline after they suddenly realised they were facing off with aggressive men clad in the flag of St George, who, it seemed, had not come for a peaceful march.
Riot police were rapidly erecting barricades to try to contain hostile and missile-throwing protesters as they focused on the gathered counter-protesters, who ended up kettled in one section of the street.
“Is there a way we can get through?” an anxious woman asked a police sergeant after a few hours. “We’ve got a train booked back to Newcastle.”
Tommy Robinson addresses the ‘unite the kingdom’ rally. Photograph: Joanna Chan/AP
“I’m afraid not,” he said. “Nobody’s getting through at all at the moment. It’s not safe to let anyone out.”
Why the Met had not expected marchers to take over Trafalgar Square was a question on the lips of many of the counter-protesters who were drawn from trade unions and anti-racist groups, and were outnumbered by about 20 to one by those attending the far-right rally.
That some of the crowd so quickly turned to violence was unsurprising, as the nationalist flag-waving group were worked up to a lather by racist and Islamophobic speeches.
Yaxley-Lennon himself introduced a survivor of the Rotherham grooming scandal on stage by asking: “How hasn’t there been a revolution already about this rape jihad against our daughters?”
Any semblance of “unity” that Yaxley-Lennon claimed to be calling for was shown to be a ludicrous facade when the speakers got talking to the crowd.
Éric Zemmour, a French far-right politician, said the “freedom of our peoples is in danger” from a “great replacement of our European people by peoples coming from the south and of Muslim culture. You and we are being colonised by our former colonies.”
Elon Musk, appearing via video link, told the crowd: “Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die, that’s the truth, I think.”
When violence inevitably erupted, one of Yaxley-Lennon’s supporters could be seen standing on a barricade, using a megaphone in a futile attempt to call for calm after being brought in by police.
Fireworks and bottles were lobbed at mounted police and, at one point, an injured Yaxley-Lennon supporter with blood pouring from a head wound was carried through a barrier by police medics and pulled through the crowd of anti-fascists who jeered and shouted: “Nazi scum.”
Counter-protesters dance at a police blockade off Trafalgar Square. Photograph: Robyn Vinter/The Guardian
Though holding a bandage to his head, he still managed to spit at those shouting at him.
Within the anti-fascist ranks, moments of joy and levity cut through the gloomy day.
Realising they were likely to be trapped for some time, dozens of the counter-protesters exhibited some creative dance moves to an eclectic selection of music belted out from their sound system, which included Kneecap and Diana Ross.
One group who had not anticipated being trapped were the Graell family, on holiday from Barcelona. They had been to the National Gallery that morning and chose to go to the Silver Cross pub on Whitehall for lunch, unaware of the events about to unfold.
“Then when we wanted to go out, we couldn’t leave,” said Elisenda, adding that it was the first time in London for her parents, Joan Maria and Empar. “It has been interesting.”
Over time, the police slowly gained control as a couple of heavy bouts of rain thinned the far-right crowd, who were pushed back enough to make a path for the counter-protesters to escape.
By 6.45pm a cleanup operation of the broken glass and empty beer cans had already begun in the area reclaimed by police from the marchers, though a couple of hundred still languished in Trafalgar Square draped in their cold, soggy flags.
An Asian employee of a magic-themed souvenir shop, which had locked down during attacks on the police outside, appeared stoic as he washed away vomit from outside the front door with a large bottle of water.
