Clashes have taken place in central London between police and participants in a St George’s Day event attended by far right supporters and others.
Groups of men wielding flags pushed through lines of police attempting to hold them back in an area near Whitehall before the event, resulting in police on horseback being sent in.
A group came up against a cordon an hour before the event was due to take place at an allocated location on Richmond Terrace, “violently forcing their way through” when they were told to turn around, the Metropolitan police said.
The force said it had been in discussions with the organiser of the event over recent days. In a post on X, it added: “We believe those planning to attend include far-right groups and groups linked to football clubs travelling from elsewhere in the UK.”
Those in attendance included the far-right leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson, and Laurence Fox, the former actor and leader of the Reclaim party.
People participating in the event – which could not start before 3pm and had to finish by 5pm – were supposed to remain on Richmond Terrace within a designated area marked in pink on the map below.
However, disorder had broken out an hour before it was due to begin, Scotland Yard said. At one point a police horse was struck, while police grappled with groups of men on Whitehall.
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A section 60AA order, giving officers the power to require the removal of face coverings, had also been put into force in the boroughs of Lambeth and Westminster after people gathering in the Waterloo area before the event had been seen wearing masks.
Public order units from the Metropolitan police were deployed ahead of the disorder, which caused Whitehall to be closed off in both directions for a period of time, supported by the British Transport police and the City of London police.