Were there counterprotests or arrests at the Unite the Kingdom rally?

1. The counter‑protest: a visible, smaller but significant presence

Organised opponents of the Unite the Kingdom march — described in reports as Stand Up To Racism and allied anti‑fascist and trade union groups — gathered as a counter‑demonstration of roughly 5,000 people according to multiple national outlets and police estimates, forming a clearly separate but contiguous protest that police were tasked with keeping apart from the main march ^{[1] [2] [5] [3]}.

2. Arrests: official counts, revisions and how they diverge

Police and media published varying arrest totals in the immediate aftermath, reflecting the fluidity of on‑the‑ground reporting: early news stories cited around 24–26 arrests, with some outlets reporting “at least 25,” then the Metropolitan Police issued counts that were revised and clarified in follow‑ups — Reuters and the Met’s own disclosures indicate roughly 23–24 arrests linked to the event, with the Met specifying that the large majority of those arrested were believed to be from the Unite the Kingdom march rather than the counter‑protest ^{[6] [4] [3] [2]}.

3. Who was arrested and who was charged: nuance beneath the headlines

Beyond headline totals, prosecutorial and police follow‑up narrowed the field: some sources reported that eight people were formally charged following the disorder, while the Met released lists and appeals seeking to identify additional suspects connected to violent disorder offences; other fact‑checks and Freedom of Information disclosures attempted to reconcile how many arrested were from each side, with the Met repeatedly stating most arrests were linked to the main march and only one recorded as from the counter‑protest in some releases ^{[7] [3] [4] [8]}.

4. Violence, injuries and the policing challenge

Reporting consistently described clashes, projectiles thrown at police, officers injured (several seriously), and police horses struck during attempts to separate the groups and manage overcrowding when the Unite the Kingdom turnout exceeded planned space — events that framed many outlets’ coverage of why arrests were made for offences including affray, violent disorder, assaults and criminal damage ^{[5] [1] [2] [9]}.

5. Misinformation, contested narratives and political spin

The event became a flashpoint for competing narratives online: viral posts claimed that most arrests were of counter‑protesters or wildly inflated attendance figures for one side, but independent fact‑checks (and the Met’s clarifications) debunked those claims and emphasised that the arrest breakdown did not support the viral assertions — a pattern showing how social platforms amplified versions of the story that suited partisan framings while official disclosures and later reporting pared back the extremes ^{[6] [10] [8]}.

6. What remains unclear from available reporting

Precise, immutable tallies remain difficult: immediate media reports gave different raw numbers, police revised figures over several days, and public FOI documents show small inconsistencies in totals and attributions between releases; reporting sampled here does not offer a single incontrovertible roster matching every arrest to an affiliation, so while the best available public record points to a counter‑protest of about 5,000 and roughly two dozen arrests (mostly attributed to the Unite the Kingdom march), absolute microscopic certainty on every individual’s status is not established in the disclosed sources ^{[4] [3] [1]}.

Bottom line

There were indeed counter‑protests and arrests: thousands joined organised counter‑demonstrations and police made roughly 23–25 arrests amid clashes and disorder, with subsequent charges and police appeals narrowing the list of people sought or charged; media and fact‑checkers repeatedly corrected viral claims that tried to reverse or exaggerate those basic facts ^{[1] [2] [6] [7]}.