ENGLISH Defence League founder Tommy Robinson led a march of at least 5000 Brexit supporters through the streets of London yesterday.
Though an estimated 15000 counter-demonstrators turned up in a bid to drown him out, it marks one of the biggest attendances at a far-right event in Britain in decades.
Initially organised by Ukip, the march took on a more sinister tone in recent days as the party fragmented over the anti-Islam politics of new leader Gerard Batten.
A slew of MEP and senior members quit after Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was made an official advisor.
Addressing the crown, Batten said: “If Parliament does not take Britain out of the European Union it will be the biggest constitutional crisis since the English Civil War.
“In 1642 the king put himself in opposition to parliament. Parliament won and the king lost his head.
“If Parliament betrays Brexit they will be putting themselves in opposition of the people”.
Among Ukip supporters was a man who gave his name as Laukan Creasey, who was carrying a gallows with a noose hanging down.
Asked why, he said: “That’s what the traitor May deserves. That’s what treasonous people get. It was a referendum not a never-endum. And they promised to implement whatever we decided and they haven’t, so two-and-a-half years down the line this is what you get.”
The march was well policed with little interaction between the Ukip marchers, and the counter-protesters.
Momentum’s national co-ordinator Laura Parker was one of those who helped organise the demonstration.
She told reporters it was about not having “fascists on the streets of Britain in 2018.”
She said: “It has just got to be stopped.Today is a huge blow for Tommy Robinson and his vile, hate-fuelled politics.
“Even with the Ukip machine in tow he only managed to bring a few thousand supporters out on the streets while we mobilised nearly 15000 to march against his racism and bigotry.”
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