On the ground with major rival protests in London

There are thousands, I would say tens of thousands of people.You can see a sea of flags, British flag, English flag.

Palestine!Palestine!

Criticism of Israel is not unaccepted.

We're here right at the start of the Unite the Kingdom rally.That's the one organised by Tommy Robinson.It's one described by the government, by Keir Starmer, as organised by convicted thugs and racists.He says they're peddling hate and division.There are thousands of people here already getting ready to move off.You can see a sea of flags, British flag, English flags, flags from all across the UK, but also Israeli flags, pro -Iran flags, but pre -Iranian revolution.

There is going to be a sort of new interpretation of the laws.Anyone who says anything extremist or hate speech on stage, the organisers are going to be held responsible.This is a really interventionist approach from the Met, from the Home Office.People forming up now.It is peaceful, they're shouting, they're shouting anti -Kiastama slogans.

I'm on Exhibition Row in South Kensington at the head of the annual Nakba March.It commemorates the expulsion of Palestinian people from their homes at the foundation of Israel in 1948.It's an annual event.It is also today an anti -racism march.They say opposing the Unite the Kingdom March.Banners are being prepared, plenty of people turning up, families, coming to join this march.

We're going to say this is a peaceful event espousing the Palestinian cause.There are many people who are concerned about the tone of these marches.

There is no anti -Semitic undercurrent to this march.There are no anti -Semitic undercurrents.There are a very large number of Jewish people on this march as well.Jewish people who want to see peace and want to see respect for the Palestinian people.Criticism of Israel is not anti -Semitic.

We're still here.It was due to start at midday, but there have been hundreds, thousands of people arriving.And we have seen an arrest.A young man was arrested, detained, and put into this van here.by several police officers.We asked him why he'd been arrested.

He said it was because he had refused to remove a face mask.The police are using powers that allow them to require protesters to remove face coverings today.He claimed he took it off in good time.Nevertheless, he is in there and is likely will play no further part in this march.The Palestine march is underway.underway.

About 50 minutes late, we're supposed to set off at midday.There are thousands, I would say tens of thousands of people have gathered on Exhibition Road in South Kensington for this march.

This march now is moving down, we're coming down the Strand, heading over to Whitehall.You can see the line of stewards at the front, it's actually pretty well organised.They're going down to Parliament Square where they're going to listen to the speeches from Tommy Robinson and others.

It's actually The main body of the Palestinian march is passing on by.

So we're heading down the Strand now.You can see how big this crowd is, how far back it goes.There's a sea of flags here.Union Jacks, sold tires, but also anti -Iranian regime flags as well.Signs saying, stop the boats.It's been a lot of chance against Keir Starmer too.

A lot of chance in support of Tommy Robinson, who is the man they're going to go and see down at the end in Parliament Square.

draw your attention to a couple of things so I think Pete can help pick us up here on the far side of the road here standing up on the balustrade some Orthodox Jews, anti -Zionist Orthodox Jews, displaying banners in support of this march and in opposition to the actions of the Israeli government.

My Jewish friends are here on this march and they feel appalled that their voice isn't taken into account.I think it's been very destructive to feel that these marches are undismitted.You know, probably the most peaceful marches I've ever been on.

Everyone's here together.There's Muslims, there's Jews, there's Christians.You know what I mean?Colours.Everyone's here together in solidarity to stop what's going on in the world.

So now we're down in Whitehall and you can see just how many people there are here.It's backing up.The actual rally is all the way down in Parliament Square.Big Ben, you can see it in the distance, right next to that.So all the way down here, they've got these big screens for the speeches.Tommy Robinson has been speaking.

And if you look over here, you can see they're still coming in.This is a large, large crowd, certainly tens of thousands of people.We'll have to wait to get the final numbers.There have been arrests made so far, relatively few, I'd say, for the size of this crowd.It's basically the immigration.

It's uncontrolled.We've got rapes going on, people have been killed and there's been no intention of the Labour government.

stopping it.I mean I'm nearly 70 and I've never seen it so bad.And I'm worried about my grandchildren.Not me, I'm nearly done now.But you just think about what our kids hear about them.We want the correct message being said on there.

Not the fake message that, you know, we hate everyone and we're racist.Because we're not.

I've not heard anyone say anything like that today.No, not one bit.

So we want the correct message that we're just here for our country and everyone to be united.

I've heard a couple of things about Muslims in particular, which were certainly racist.

I do apologise on their behalf because that shouldn't have been said.

The Nakba March has reached its end point, Waterloo Place, right in central London.It's been, as far as we can tell, walking all the way up over the last two and a half hours and entirely peaceful.journey from South Kensington here into central London.There is an enormous amount of anger about, as many people here will see, the conflation of these marches with anti -Semitism.It is multi -age, multi -ethnic, multi -gender.It is over now and protesters have been asked, demonstrators have been asked to leave.

quickly in groups, not alone, and also to use one of just three tube stations, Piccadilly Circus, Hyde Park Corner and Green Park.The intention, their one presumes, is to try and keep the protesters here, tens of thousands of them certainly, keeping them from mixing with those at the Unite the Kingdom Tommy Robinson march.

So it's winding down here at Unite the Kingdom, still speaking over there, but people starting to disperse.There were a lot of people earlier.They had a lot of different reasons for coming.It's not a homogenous block of opinion.A lot of it anti -government sentiment, anti -Kirstahmer sentiment in particular, concerns over immigration.But within that, people disagree about whether they're talking about just illegal immigration or legal migration and where that line is drawn.

All in all,we're not far right, that label that has been applied by Keir Starmer to them.We have heard some Islamophobic remarks.A lot of people are keen to say this is not about racism, it is about changing the direction of the country.This is now an established feature of British politics, both sets of rallies have been turning out people repeatedly in large numbers.This is a politics that exists outside the usual power structures of British society.