Central London became the stage for a dramatic and deeply polarizing scene on Saturday, September 13, 2025, as one of Britain’s largest far-right rallies in recent memory swept through the capital. The event, branded “Unite the Kingdom,” drew an estimated 110,000 to 150,000 demonstrators, according to the Metropolitan Police—a turnout that far surpassed organizers’ expectations and set the city on edge.
The rally, organized by Tommy Robinson, the controversial founder of the English Defence League (EDL), was billed as a demonstration for free speech but quickly took on a more incendiary tone. Far-right figures from across Europe and North America, including French politician Éric Zemmour and Petr Bystron of Germany’s anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), addressed the crowd with nationalist rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including references to the so-called “Great Replacement.”
But the rally’s most attention-grabbing moment came via video link from Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk. Speaking virtually to the masses gathered near Downing Street, Musk delivered a series of statements that ignited immediate backlash and a political firestorm. “You’re in a fundamental situation here,” Musk declared. He then claimed, “The left is the party of murder and celebrating murder. Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die.” As reported by CNN, Musk went further, urging, “There needs to be massive government reform in Britain and the people need to be in charge, not some bureaucracy that doesn’t care.” He called for “revolutionary government change,” telling the crowd, “This really requires everyone to sort of marshal the people, to take charge, reform the government, and make sure that you actually have a government that is for the people, by the people.”
Musk’s remarks came just days after the killing of American political activist Charlie Kirk in Utah, an incident he referenced in his speech as evidence of escalating political violence. “People on the left were openly celebrating his death,” Musk asserted, doubling down on his condemnation of left-wing politics. These comments were consistent with Musk’s recent history of provocative interventions in UK politics, including his prediction last year that “civil war is inevitable” during anti-immigration riots, and his claim in January that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer should be imprisoned over historic child abuse scandals.
The rally itself was far from peaceful. According to BBC and CNN, clashes erupted on the fringes as some attendees attempted to breach police cordons separating them from a rival “Stand Up to Racism” march, which drew around 5,000 counter-protesters. The Metropolitan Police deployed approximately 1,000 officers, with reinforcements in riot gear called in to keep the groups apart. The violence was swift and brutal: 26 police officers were injured, four of them seriously, sustaining broken bones, concussions, a prolapsed disc, and other injuries. Twenty-four to twenty-five people were arrested in connection with the unrest.
Political leaders across the spectrum condemned both the violence and Musk’s intervention. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey was quick to denounce the events, writing on social media, “These far-right thugs do not speak for Britain.” Business Secretary Peter Kyle described Musk’s speech as “slightly incomprehensible” and “totally inappropriate” in an interview with BBC, but also acknowledged that the protest highlighted “big concerns” among the public, especially regarding immigration. “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,” Kyle said, emphasizing that the demonstration proved free speech remains “alive and well in this country.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for his part, issued a strong statement condemning the assaults on police officers and the use of the British flag as a symbol of division. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Starmer said, “We will not stand for assaults on police officers doing their job or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the color of their skin. Britain is a nation proudly built on tolerance, diversity and respect. Our flag represents our diverse country and we will never surrender it to those that use it as a symbol of violence, fear and division.”
The events in London reverberated far beyond the UK, intersecting with a parallel debate raging online over the boundaries of political speech and the responsibilities of tech platforms. Just one day before the rally, on September 12, a two-minute compilation of past livestreams by popular Twitch streamer HasanAbi resurfaced on social media. The clips, featuring HasanAbi and his associate “Mike from PA,” contained inflammatory statements, including calls to “kill” and “murder” political opponents. One particularly graphic excerpt had HasanAbi saying, “Kill them! Kill those motherfkers! Murder those motherfkers in the streets! Let the streets, soak in their red capitalist bloods, dude.” Another, from 2022, showed him telling liberals to “gut” their enemies.
These resurfaced clips quickly went viral, sparking renewed scrutiny of Twitch’s moderation policies and igniting a heated debate about the limits of online expression. Elon Musk, never far from controversy, reposted the clips with the caption “Incitement to murder” and supported calls by gaming veteran Mark “Grummz” Kern to ban HasanAbi indefinitely from the platform. The debate split sharply along ideological lines: critics argued that platforms like Twitch cannot ignore rhetoric that could incite real-world violence, while HasanAbi’s supporters insisted that his hyperbolic speech was satirical and taken out of context.
With nearly 3 million followers and 54,000 active subscribers, HasanAbi is one of the most influential voices on Twitch. The controversy underscored the broader culture war over freedom of expression online versus the need to police speech that could lead to harm. As highlighted by reporting from IBNS and CNN, the debate is emblematic of the ongoing struggle between those who see policing political expression as a threat to open discourse and those who argue that unchecked rhetoric can have dangerous consequences in the real world.
Saturday’s events in London, and the digital battles that followed, have laid bare the volatile intersection of politics, technology, and free speech in the modern age. As Britain braces for further political turbulence in the run-up to its next general election, the questions raised—about who gets to speak, who gets to protest, and how society should respond when words turn into violence—are only becoming more urgent.
In the end, the day’s events left a city shaken, a nation divided, and a global audience watching closely as the debate over speech, power, and responsibility rages on.
