Six arrested on suspicion of assault and animal cruelty after St George’s Day protesters clash with police

Six men were arrested in Central London on Tuesday after clashes broke out between St George’s Day protesters and the police.

At around 2pm, an hour before the event was set to begin, police reported officers dealing with disorder as groups of men waving St George flags pushed through lines of police attempting to hold them back in an area near Whitehall.

The Met said there was an allocated area for the event in Richmond Terrace, but the group had passed it and continued up Whitehall.

When officers formed a cordon and asked the group to turn round, protesters “reacted violently” by forcing their way through, resulting in police on horseback being sent in.

At least six people were arrested by police at the event, including one man arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty after allegedly targeting a police horse in Whitehall. 

Four men were arrested outside a pub in Whitehall, one on suspicion of assault and three on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker, and another man was arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

Police enforced a section 60 order – giving officers the right to search people without reasonable grounds – as well as a Section 35 dispersal order, which means police can exclude a person from an area for a period of up to 48 hours.

A section 60AA order, giving officers the power to require the removal of face coverings, was also put into force in Lambeth and Westminster after people gathering in the Waterloo area before the event were seen wearing masks.

The event was addressed by the far-right leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson. Others in attendance included Laurence Fox, the former actor and leader of the Reclaim Party.

The force said it had been in discussions with the organisers of the event before it took place. 

In a post on X before the event, the Met said: “We believe those planning to attend include far-right groups and groups linked to football clubs travelling from elsewhere in the UK.”

Public order units from the Met were deployed ahead of the disorder, which caused Whitehall to be closed off in both directions for a period, supported by the British Transport Police and the City of London Police.

Pictured top: A Met van (Picture: The Met)