U.S. Vice President JD Vance urged anti-immigration activists in the United Kingdom to “keep on going” after tens of thousands gathered for a rally in London.
Vance appeared to align himself with those who attended a march on Saturday where far-right activist Tommy Robinson told supporters to prepare for the “battle of Britain.”
Organizers claimed millions attended Robinson’s “unite the kingdom” event, but police estimated the number of demonstrators at about 60,000. The campaign group Hope Not Hate said the scale of Robinson’s movement remained “deeply worrying.”
Addressing reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Vance said, “All over the west” there is “this idea that the way to generate prosperity is to bring in millions and millions of unvetted people and drop them into your neighborhoods.”
“And we simply reject that idea,” the vice president said. “To everybody in the UK who rejects that idea, I’d encourage them to just keep on going. It’s OK to want to defend your culture. It’s OK to want to live in a safe neighborhood.”
At Saturday’s rally in London’s Parliament Square, Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, called the event “a turning point for Britain.”
Islamophobic and ethnonationalist hate speech and flyers were distributed to crowds at the event, where nine people were arrested on suspicion of hate crimes.
Vance framed his support in economic terms, arguing that mass immigration drives down wages and harms working people on both sides of the Atlantic, including lower-income Black and Hispanic Americans.
Saturday’s march was the latest in a series of Robinson-organized demonstrations. A rally in September drew up to 150,000 people to London, where Elon Musk addressed the crowd by video link. Police said the latest event drew less than half that number.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said ahead of the march that he supported the right to peaceful protest but accused organizers of peddling hatred and division. His government blocked entry visas for foreign far-right figures who sought to attend.
Robinson has been a key figure in British far-right politics for more than a decade and has entered the American right-wing influencer ecosystem.
He co-founded the English Defence League in 2009 and has a string of criminal convictions, including mortgage fraud, assault and repeated contempt of court charges for filming defendants in active trials. The most recent sent him to prison in 2024.
Earlier this year, U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood changed asylum rules so newly recognized refugees receive 30 months of temporary protection instead of five years.
The European Union will fully adopt a new migration and asylum pact next month, overhauling how the bloc screens, processes and shares responsibility for asylum seekers at its external borders.
📝 This article was rewritten with AI assistance based on content from
The Guardian.
JD Vance urges UK anti-immigration activists to ‘keep on going’
U.S. Vice President JD Vance urged anti-immigration activists in the United Kingdom to “keep on going” after tens of thousands gathered for a rally in London.
Vance appeared to align himself with those who attended a march on Saturday where far-right activist Tommy Robinson told supporters to prepare for the “battle of Britain.”
Organizers claimed millions attended Robinson’s “unite the kingdom” event, but police estimated the number of demonstrators at about 60,000. The campaign group Hope Not Hate said the scale of Robinson’s movement remained “deeply worrying.”
Addressing reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Vance said, “All over the west” there is “this idea that the way to generate prosperity is to bring in millions and millions of unvetted people and drop them into your neighborhoods.”
“And we simply reject that idea,” the vice president said. “To everybody in the UK who rejects that idea, I’d encourage them to just keep on going. It’s OK to want to defend your culture. It’s OK to want to live in a safe neighborhood.”
At Saturday’s rally in London’s Parliament Square, Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, called the event “a turning point for Britain.”
Islamophobic and ethnonationalist hate speech and flyers were distributed to crowds at the event, where nine people were arrested on suspicion of hate crimes.
Vance framed his support in economic terms, arguing that mass immigration drives down wages and harms working people on both sides of the Atlantic, including lower-income Black and Hispanic Americans.
Saturday’s march was the latest in a series of Robinson-organized demonstrations. A rally in September drew up to 150,000 people to London, where Elon Musk addressed the crowd by video link. Police said the latest event drew less than half that number.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said ahead of the march that he supported the right to peaceful protest but accused organizers of peddling hatred and division. His government blocked entry visas for foreign far-right figures who sought to attend.
Robinson has been a key figure in British far-right politics for more than a decade and has entered the American right-wing influencer ecosystem.
He co-founded the English Defence League in 2009 and has a string of criminal convictions, including mortgage fraud, assault and repeated contempt of court charges for filming defendants in active trials. The most recent sent him to prison in 2024.
Earlier this year, U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood changed asylum rules so newly recognized refugees receive 30 months of temporary protection instead of five years.
The European Union will fully adopt a new migration and asylum pact next month, overhauling how the bloc screens, processes and shares responsibility for asylum seekers at its external borders.
Related posts