Over 100,000 people gathered in London on Saturday for a free speech rally spearheaded by Tommy Robinson which featured an appearance by Elon Musk in a virtual interview broadcast on stage. 

According to Metropolitan Police, an estimated 110,000 people were in Whitehall for the "Unite the Kingdon" event - so probably 500,000 people at least? Robinson claims it was 'millions.'

Flags could be seen far and wide, including St. George's Cross, the Union Flag, the Scottish saltire and the Welsh dragon. Others carried wooden crosses with "Christ" written on them while singing Christian songs. 

During his time on stage, Elon Musk told the crowd: "I want Britain to remain Britain. I think that has there’s something beautiful about being British. And what I see happening is a destruction of Britain, initially a slow erosion, but a rapidly increasing erosion of Britain, with massive uncontrolled migration."

As the Epoch Times notes further, Musk also blamed the government for what is known in England as the grooming gang scandal—the large-scale systematic exploitation and rape of white working class girls by gangs of Pakistani heritage—which occurred over a period of two decades or so under previous administrations.

The grooming gangs scandal has been a key campaigning issue for Robinson for the last decade.

Both demonstrations were separated by barriers with a “sterile area” to minimise the risk of clashes between the groups.

Robinson had called on attendees of his rally to not wear masks, drink alcohol or be violent.

Strict conditions have been imposed under the Public Order Act on where and when campaigners can protest, the Met said, with the SUTR event ending at 4pm and the Unite the Kingdom event finishing at 6pm.

Five Premier League football matches are also set to take place on Saturday, including derbies between West Ham and Tottenham, and Brentford and Chelsea.

More than 1,600 officers were to be deployed in total across the city, with 500 brought in from other forces, the Metropolitan Police said.

But, police said, the Robinson crowd was too big to fit into Whitehall and confrontation happened when police tried to stop them from accessing the area from different routes.

A spokesman said: “When officers moved in to stop them, they faced unacceptable violence. They were assaulted with kicks and punches. Bottles, flares and other projectiles were thrown.

“Nine arrests have been made so far for various offences, but many more people have been identified as committing offences.”

Robinson, has been politically active in the UK for years, initially rising to fame as co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL) in 2009. The EDL and Robinson himself were often accused of being far-right, and of espousing fascist views—something which Robinson has always denied.

He severed ties with the organization in 2013, and it has since become defunct.

The main focus of his campaigns in the past have been critical of Islam, but more recently they have shifted to issues of free speech.