St George’s Day rally in central London turns violent, brawl with police and six arrests

A rally in central London to mark St George’s Day turned violent, with a brawl involving police officers.

A group of people pushed past Met officers and “forced their way through the crowd” as officers attempted to contain them in a designated area near Whitehall, police said on Tuesday.

Men carrying the St. George’s flag pushed through a wall of vested officers.

The Metropolitan Police said: “Sadly, officers are already dealing with disorder.

“There is an area allocated for this event in Richmond Terrace. This group passed through and made their way to Whitehall.

“When officers formed a cordon and asked the group to turn around, they responded by forcing their way through. Mounted officers intervened with horses to restore the cordon.”

Video footage shows a man hitting one of the horses with a long object.

Later on Tuesday afternoon, the Met reported that four people involved in the rally had been arrested, one on suspicion of assault and three on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker. Two arrests had been made earlier, bringing the total to six.

Police shared an image on X showing dozens of officers and several police vans near a crowd on a sidewalk.

The police added to X: “Officers arrived quickly on the scene and order was restored.

“The southbound lane was briefly blocked, but has since been reopened.”

Security Minister Tom Tugendhat condemned the group who forced their way through the police line, saying: “These men are not patriots. They are simply thugs.”

Some of the protesters came dressed as knights. The smell of alcohol hung heavy in the air and many appeared drunk.

One man collapsed near Downing Street and was treated by ambulance personnel.

Laurence Fox took to the stage to make insulting remarks about Sadiq Khan, calling the Mayor of London a “dictator” before leading the crowd in chants of “Get Khan out”.

Addressing the crowd gathered on Whitehall, Tommy Robinson, who was cleared earlier on Tuesday of breaching a dispersal order at an earlier London demonstration against antisemitism, claimed that “jihadist marches” had “taken over London over the last six months”.

Scotland Yard deployed extra officers to prevent unrest when masked people gathered for the protest.

Around noon, the Met reported: ‘A St George’s Day event is expected to take place later today on Richmond Terrace, just off Whitehall.

“We believe those planning to attend include far-right groups and groups with links to football clubs who are coming from other parts of the UK.”

Police said law enforcement officers were deployed and a helicopter hovered overhead.

The British Transport Police and the City of London Police were also involved in the operation.

The Met added: “The officers’ primary role is to ensure the safety of participants and the public, but they will not hesitate to respond in the event of disorderly conduct or other offences.”

It is believed that the groups gathered in the Waterloo district before joining the meeting in Whitehall.

Police were on site “to respond to any incidents”.

The Met stressed: “A number of people were seen in the area wearing masks.

“A section 60AA order, which gives officers the power to require face coverings to be removed, is now in force in the boroughs of Lambeth and Westminster.”

A section 60 order, which gives officers additional search powers, also came into force “in the same area to prevent crime and disorder”.

Police added: “We have been in discussions with the organiser of the event in Richmond Terrace over the past few days.

“To prevent disorder and keep disruption to a minimum, we have set a number of conditions in the Public Order Act.

Anyone attending the event must remain on Richmond Terrace, within the marked area.

“The event cannot start before 3:00 PM and must end no later than 5:00 PM.”

Some of the protesters with the flag shouted: “f*** Palestine” and “they don’t want us to be English”.

Ironically, according to some sources, Saint George’s mother came from fourth-century Roman Palestine.

At around 3pm, the Met reported: “Whitehall has reopened to traffic in both directions, following an earlier closure to help people trying to get away from the designated event area.

“There have been no further incidents since that altercation. There is still a significant police presence.”