Police ban Ukip protest from taking place in area with large Muslim population

A United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) demonstration has been banned from taking place in an area with a large Muslim population because of a “realistic prospect of serious disorder”, police have said.

The event, which was initially advertised as a march from Whitechapel station in east London and later revised to be an assembly in the same area, was due to take place on Saturday afternoon, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The demonstration was part of a series of events taking place across the UK which were promoted as a “mass deportations tour”, with organisers calling on attendees to “reclaim Whitechapel from the Islamists”, the force said.

A counter-protest, organised by Stand Up To Racism and a number of local groups, was also expected, police added.

On Tuesday, police said they had imposed Public Order Act conditions meaning Ukip cannot hold its protest in Whitechapel or anywhere else in the borough of Tower Hamlets.

Commander Nick John, who is in charge of the public order policing operation in London this weekend, said: “Tower Hamlets has the largest percentage of Muslim residents anywhere in the UK and the prospect of this protest taking place in the heart of the borough has been the cause of significant concern locally.

“It is our assessment that there is a realistic prospect of serious disorder if it was to go ahead in the proposed location.

“This is in addition to the disruption that two large protests taking place on a key arterial route through east London would cause.”

He added: “Ukip are free to organise their protest in an alternative location but they will not be holding it in Tower Hamlets.

“Anyone who tries to assemble, in breach of the conditions, or who encourages others to do so, will face arrest.”

In a post on X from the party’s main account, Ukip said police had “caved into the Islamists and violated our democratic right to peaceful assembly in Whitechapel this Saturday” and that it was in the process of re-organising the march for another location in London.

The party added: “This comes less than week after the disastrous decision from West Midlands Police to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending an Aston Villa game.

“British police are now caving into sectarian violence across the country, which is unacceptable.

“The Met must decide who is in charge of police strategy, police commanders or Islamist ‘community leaders’.

“Today’s announcement is another blow for our democracy, but we will not be deterred or stopped from taking our country back.”

Writing on X, mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman said the Ukip demonstration “would have caused significant disruption and intimidation in our local community, and spread fear and prejudice”.

He said: “We will still hold our peaceful march in Whitechapel on Saturday to celebrate our diversity and unity.

“From the Battle of Cable Street to today, the far right has never succeeded in dividing our community and they never will.”

Ukip was founded in the 1990s with the help of now-Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who later went on to lead the party.

It was instrumental in paving the way for the in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU and received 3.9 million votes under Mr Farage’s leadership in the 2015 general election.

Mr Farage quit Ukip in December 2018, saying he was uncomfortable with the direction the party had taken having criticised then-leader Gerard Batten for appointing English Defence League (EDL) founder Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, as an adviser.

According to the party’s website, its current campaigns include the “complete rejection of wokeness, trans-ideology”, the “rejection and condemnation of Islamism” and the scrapping of all diversity, equality and inclusion agendas.

Speaking in a video posted on X, Ukip leader Nick Tenconi said he was “disgusted” with the police decision to move the march which he said was a “direct breach of our democratic right to peaceful assembly”.

He added: “This is two-tier policing at its worst, and the Met have, at best, signified they have lost control of the streets of London, or at worst, are complicit with the Islamists in stifling our democracy.”