Protesters set to descend on opposite sides of London amid police restrictions

Protesters from opposing groups are set to descend on different sides of London after police banned United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) supporters from gathering in an area of the capital with a large Muslim population because of what officers called a “realistic prospect of serious disorder”.

Ukip supporters were blocked from holding rally and march planned for Saturday afternoon near Whitechapel Station in east London.

The group will instead gather outside the London Oratory, a Catholic church in Kensington, at 1pm, before a march towards Marble Arch after the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday imposed Public Order Act conditions preventing them from holding the protest anywhere in the borough of Tower Hamlets.

The demonstration is 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”, Ukip’s X profile said.

A counter-protest, organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) and other local groups, is still due to go ahead from 12pm in east London, and police have restricted SUTR from gathering in an area of central London including where the Ukip protest will take place.

Scotland Yard said on Friday it had imposed more restrictions on the groups to “prevent serious disorder” and “serious disruption”.

Commander Nick John, who is in charge of public order policing in London this weekend, said: “Our role in relation to the policing of protest is to ensure that they take place peacefully, that offences are dealt with, that they do not cause excessive disruption to the ordinary lives of local residents, visitors and businesses and to ensure that where there is a prospect of disorder we take action to prevent it.

“The risk of such disorder can be elevated if groups with clearly opposing views are allowed to gather in close proximity to each other, particularly if they do so in the heart of a residential area at a time when tensions and fears in relation to hate crime and similar offences are heightened.

“We intervened earlier this week to use our powers under the Public Order Act to prevent a protest taking place in Whitechapel due to the prospect of serious disorder.

“This was not a ‘ban’ as it has been described in some coverage and commentary, but a requirement for the protest to move if it was to go ahead.

“We have used the same power on many occasions over the past two years when policing demonstrations by various groups.”

Public Order Act conditions also ban members of the Ukip march from protesting before 1pm or after 4.30pm.

Mr John urged people planning to attend either protest to familiarise themselves with the conditions, warning that anyone breaching them, or encouraging others to do so, could be arrested.