{"id":21198,"date":"2025-09-14T09:24:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T09:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=21198"},"modified":"2025-09-14T09:24:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T09:24:51","slug":"scale-of-unite-the-kingdom-march-shows-free-speech-alive-and-well-in-uk-says-minister-uk-politics-live-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=21198","title":{"rendered":"Scale of \u2018Unite the Kingdom\u2019 march shows free speech \u2018alive and well\u2019 in UK, says minister \u2013 UK politics live | Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Saturday’s protest should be a ‘klaxon call’ for politicians to ‘redouble efforts to address public’s big concerns’, minister says<\/h2>\n

The business and trade secretary, Peter Kyle<\/strong>, was asked about the protests again on the BBC\u2019s Laura Kuenssberg Sunday politics programme. He echoed his earlier comments, saying the demonstration proved that freedom of association and freedom of speech are \u201calive and well\u201d in the UK.<\/p>\n

He said Elon Musk\u2019s comments to the crowd, including that they must \u201cfight back or die\u201d and that \u201cviolence is coming\u201d, were \u201ctotally inappropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kyle said:<\/p>\n

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. <\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span>Peter Kyle was asked by Laura Kuenssberg about the protests yesterday in London.<\/span> Photograph: Jeff Overs\/BBC\/PA<\/p>\n

Kuenssberg <\/strong><\/em>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:<\/p>\n

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 figure such as Tommy Robinson that is able to touch into a sense of disquiet and grievance in our society. <\/em><\/p>\n

A lot of it goes back to its root in the financial crisis and the impact it had on communities around the country and we haven\u2019t been able to bring our communities back together again since. <\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Updated at\u00a005.23 EDT<\/p>\n

Sadiq Khan says ‘violence and attacking police officers’ at London rally were ‘completely unacceptable’<\/h2>\n

Sadiq Khan<\/strong>, the Mayor of London, said the pockets of violence at the protest yesterday were \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a post on X thanking the Metropolitan police for its work, he wrote:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Violence and attacking police officers is completely unacceptable.<\/p>\n

The Met said 25 people had been arrested for a range of offences in what it described as \u201cwholly unacceptable\u201d violence.<\/p>\n

Marchers were arrested for a range of offences, including affray, violent disorder, assaults and criminal damage.<\/p>\n

Because of the size of the demonstration, the Met was supported by officers from other forces, including Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Devon and Cornwall.<\/p>\n

<\/span>People march at the Unite the Kingdom rally in central London.<\/span> Photograph: James Willoughby\/SOPA Images\/ShutterstockShare<\/p>\n

Scale of Tommy Robinson protest shows free speech is ‘alive and well’ in the UK, minister says<\/h2>\n

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.<\/p>\n

At least 25 people were arrested and 26 police officers were injured \u2013 including four who were seriously hurt \u2013 at Tommy Robinson\u2019s \u201cUnite the Kingdom\u201d<\/strong> protest in London yesterday, the Metropolitan police said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The crowds were addressed by Elon Musk, who dialled in via video link and spoke of \u201cthe rapidly increasing erosion of Britain\u201d, before calling for the dissolution of the UK parliament.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Protesters clash with police at far-right rally in London \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n

Business and trade secretary Peter Kyle<\/strong> was asked by Sky News\u2019 Trevor Phillips this morning if the demonstration \u2013 organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cdisturbed\u201d him.<\/p>\n

Kyle said the number of people who turned out for the protest shows free speech is \u201calive and well\u201d in the UK.<\/p>\n

He explained:<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t disturb me, because it\u2019s actually proof that we live in a country where free speech, free association, is alive and well. <\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe flag was waved quite a lot and I do want to make the point that the flag belongs to all of us,\u201d Kyle added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat flag means a lot of different things to a lot of people, but it is about essential British and English values and principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature 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\u2019s Laura Kuenssberg Sunday politics programme. He<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[5052,533,11192,132,11244,1354,124,7725,871,1053,3622],"class_list":{"0":"post-21198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-alive","9":"tag-free","10":"tag-kingdom","11":"tag-live","12":"tag-march","13":"tag-minister","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-scale","16":"tag-shows","17":"tag-speech","18":"tag-unite"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}