Tommy Robinson held a carol service in London yesterday, but attendees were markedly fewer than those who appeared for his September rally.
More than 100,000 people marched down Whitehall at the right-wing activist’s protest earlier this year, but an event convened to ‘put the Christ back into Christmas’ attracted only 1,000 punters.
A separate counter-protest was organised by Stand Up to Hate.
While police struggled to keep the two groups apart during Robinson’s September rally, there were no reported clashes this time around.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, told attendees that he used to ‘hate the Church’ but was inspired to care about the Bible by a pastor in prison.
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The activist had insisted this event was a ‘religious celebration’ rather than a political gathering, requesting supporters to not wear face masks and refrain from drinking.
The Metropolitan Police nonetheless decided to impose conditions on the gathering.
Santa hats were seen being sold alongside St George’s flags as carol hymn sheets were handed out to the gathered crowd.
Among attendees was a priest who pointed out that Jesus was a migrant.
It came as a former Archbishop of Canterbury warned about the ‘weaponisation’ of Christmas events.
Rowan Williams called on the Church of England to reinforce the Christian message of the festival being open to all.
Met Police Commander Adam Slonecki said yesterday: ‘Every weekend in London is busy but that is especially the case at this time of year when the transport network, shops and public spaces will see much higher footfall.
‘In that context, it is particularly important that we ensure that where groups are exercising their lawful right to protest, we use the powers available to us to ensure those protests don’t cause serious disruption to the many other people – Londoners and visitors alike – going about their lives.
‘We have imposed a series of Public Order Act conditions setting out limits on locations and timings of the protests.’
Up to 150,000 were estimated to have turned out for Robinson’s September Unite the Kingdom rally in central London.
Charity Tell Mama said it had received more than 150 reports of anti-Muslim hate in the seven days following the march.
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