Protesters forming the "Unite the Kingdom" rally gathered in the centre of the capital, holding Union and St George's flags.

They heard a series of speeches, including from Mr Robinson, who called it the "biggest freedom of speech" in British history.

Police estimated that between 110,000 to 150,000 attended the event, significantly exceeding the estimates of organisers.

An anti-racism counter-protest, attended by about 5,000 campaigners, also took place, with the two groups clashing on Whitehall and Trafalgar Square, separated by lines of police.

There were 25 arrests made, with many more likely, the Metropolitan Police said, adding that officers faced "significant aggression" from "Unite the Kingdom" attendees.

"The violence they faced was wholly unacceptable," police said.

"26 officers were injured, including four seriously - among them broken teeth, a possible broken nose, a concussion, a prolapsed disc and a head injury."

Police said the Robinson crowd was too big to fit into Whitehall and confrontation happened when police tried to stop them from encircling counter-protesters and 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. We will find them and they will face police action, even if it is not possible to do so today.

"Officers are continuing to face aggression in multiple locations, in particular at the north of Whitehall as they work to create a safe exit route for those who have been taking part in the Stand Up To Racism protest."

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood condemned "those who have attacked and injured police officers" during the protests, promising anyone taking part in criminal activity will "face the full force of the law".

Musk makes surprise appearance

Robinson live-streamed the rally on X, with its audience peaking at 2.9 million viewers on Saturday afternoon.

Making a surprise appearance via video link, tech billionaire Elon Musk called for a "change of government" in the UK.

"You can't - we don't have another four years, or whenever the next election is, it's too long," Musk told the crowd. "Something's got to be done. There's got to be a dissolution of parliament and a new vote held."

TV presenter Katie Hopkins also spoke after earlier appearing alongside Robinson, Lawrence Fox and Ant Middleton at the front of the march.

'Revolution has started - you can't stop it'

With a voice which sounded hoarse from shouting, Robinson told crowds during his speech that "millions" had showed up for the rally.

"The dam has well and truly burst," he said. "The cat is out of the bag and there is no putting it back in. The silent majority will be silent no longer."

Addressing Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour government, Robinson said: "The revolution has started - and you can't stop it."

Referring to a Court of Appeal decision to overturn an injunction blocking asylum seekers being housed at The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, Robinson claimed UK courts found the rights of undocumented migrants supersede those of the "local community".

He said: "They told the world that Somalians, Afghanis, Pakistanis, all of them, their rights supersede yours - the British public, the people that built this nation."

The US president, in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, said the alliance's commitment to winning the war "has been far less than 100%" and the purchase of Russian oil by some members is "shocking".

Doing so "greatly weakens your negotiating position and bargaining power, over Russia," he said.

NATO member Turkey has been the third largest buyer of Russian oil since 2023, after China and India, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, with fellow members Hungary and Slovakia also buying energy supplies from Moscow.

A NATO ban on the practice plus tariffs on China would "also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR", he added.

The president said NATO members should also put 50% to 100% tariffs on China - and only withdraw them if the conflict ends.

'China's grip' on Russia

"China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia," Mr Trump posted, and powerful tariffs "will break that grip".

The US president has already placed a 25% import tax on goods from India over its buying of Russian energy products.

Mr Trump said responsibility for the war fell on his predecessor Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He did not include in that list Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion.

Village changes hands

On the battlefield on Saturday, Russian troops took control of the village of Novomykolaivka in Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

A drone attack hit an oil refinery in the city of Ufa, around 870 miles (1,400km) from the border with Ukraine, the local governor said, calling it a terrorist incident.

Read more on Sky News:
All we know about Kirk murder suspect
Nepal's first female PM
Man admits constituency arson

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Friday the 32-nation alliance would place military equipment on the border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to deter potential Russian aggression.

Operation 'Eastern Sentry' followed Wednesday's provocative incursion by multiple Russian drones into the airspace of Poland, another NATO member.

Polish forces shot down the drones, which Moscow said went astray because they were jammed.

Prince Harry's surprise visit

The Duke of Sussex made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday, promising to do "everything possible" to help the recovery of injured military staff.

Travelling on an overnight train to Kyiv, Prince Harry, who has since left the country, told The Guardian: "We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.

"We have to keep it [the war] in the forefront of people's minds. I hope this trip will help to bring it home to people because it's easy to become desensitised to what has been going on."

She asked us to call her 'Luz'. She requested that we not publish her real name or show her face. She asked us to alter the pitch of her voice too.

That is the level of fear right now in this country among certain communities.

"I never felt this way before," she told me as we chatted in her small apartment in a suburb of Washington DC. "... the fear I carry with me all the time."

"I'm afraid of leaving the house. I'm afraid of going outside. I'm afraid of being detained. I'm afraid of, you know, just for them to look at me and see me as a Latino woman. Right?

"And being taken. I'm afraid of that."

Her experience is replicated across a section of the Latino community around America.

"I've seen neighbours being taken. I've seen people getting arrested; detained. And it's hurtful."

Two weeks ago, we saw where this fear comes from. My team and I filmed as immigration officials, ICE agents as they are known, stopped a landscaping business truck in the Mount Pleasant district of the American capital.

Three of the men in the vehicle were removed, handcuffed, and put into the back of unmarked cars by agents with no warrants and wearing no uniforms except tactical vests with 'POLICE' written on them.

The detained men were all Latino. Their 'crime' at that point was not being able to prove, on demand, that they had the legal right to be in America.

In short, they didn't have their 'papers' on them.

We were watching the real-time playout of a key policy that propelled President Donald Trump back to the White House: to fix America's immigration crisis.

Or to put it in the terms which sold best on the campaign trail - to "stop the illegal invasion".

In Washington DC, and increasingly other communities in cities across America, these early morning raids are now frequent.

I wanted to understand the impact from the perspective of the communities targeted.

Given the rhetoric in America at the moment, the natural assumption might be that this is a policy designed to round up illegal criminals who were allowed into the country under the Biden administration through the chaotic and insecure southern border.

The messaging is that all undocumented migrants fall into this category: that they are a scourge on society, contribute nothing, take everything, and generally make America less American.

"I've been in the US for 17 years," Luz told me.

"I came here when I was 16 years old from Mexico. My goal was always to become a better version of myself; to be able to learn English," she said, in perfect English.

"I'm sorry...," she began to cry.

Classic 'economic migrant'

Luz's story could not be more typical. She didn't leave Mexico because of war or persecution. She left for a better life. She left for the opportunities on the horizon in America. She is a classic 'economic migrant'.

Now in her 30s, she came here from Mexico in 2008. She came illegally, crossing a remote part of the southern border, to pursue her dream.

"The American dream," she said. "My father had to migrate to support his family. He did it because he wanted us to have an education, to have enough food, clothing, a safe house. I am very thankful for that."

As we chatted, I was struck at how bold she was to agree to tell her story given the climate right now in America.

"I am fully undocumented. I don't have a status in this country. And unfortunately, because of legal reasons, there's no way for me.

"There's not even a pathway."

Luz could never claim asylum because she did not flee war or persecution. That makes sense, of course.

But here's the thing: despite being undocumented, and therefore here illegally, the American way has been to welcome her, to enable her to live here, and to feel that she belonged.

"I've been able to have an ID, to have healthcare. We file taxes every year just as a US citizen does. And it's important for people to know that even though we are illegally here or we don't have the proper documentation, we are able to interact and be part of the society and the community in many ways," she explained.

That may, for many, be an overly generous policy weakness. Yet it has enabled and rooted millions of people in America.

In a nation literally built on immigration, one way or another, Luz was the latest iteration of the American story, until now.

At the White House, Tom Homan is President Trump's border tsar.

He is driving the immigration policy, which propelled Donald Trump back to the presidency - to deport everyone who is here illegally.

He and I spoke this week just outside the Oval Office.

"She hasn't left her home for over two weeks now, she can't take her own child to school in the neighbourhood because she is so frightened of being rounded up by ICE agents," I said to him.

"The bottom line is we're prioritising public safety threats and national security threats," Mr Homan told me.

"We're not out sweeping neighbourhoods. We're not out looking for non-criminals. Now, if we run into a non-criminal during these operations, they absolutely are going to be taken into custody."

I pushed back: "These are people who have been enabled by America to be here..."

"Enabled by America? What does that mean?" he said.

I explained: "It means that they have healthcare, they pay tax, they have jobs. And so over a period of a long time, America has kind of welcomed them and enabled them to be here.

"Because of a change of policy, which we all understand, are you now saying that all of them must leave?"

'It's not okay to be in this country illegally'

Mr Homan replied: "But they are cheating the system, right? Because there's millions of people standing in line taking their tests, doing their background investigation, to be part of the greatest nation on Earth.

"You're talking about people that cheated the system. No. It's not okay to be in this country illegally."

He moved on. There was no chance to ask him why an amnesty for those already here wasn't an option. Critics of the administration have suggested Trump should "take the win" from his successful locking down of the southern border and let non-criminals already here stay.

And there was no opportunity to push back on Mr Homan's claim that his agents are "not out sweeping the streets". The evidence on the streets, in the communities, suggests quite the opposite.

For days now, we have seen ICE agents in blacked-out vehicles roaming the streets.

In targeted neighbourhoods, children are now escorted to school because their parents dare not go out unless they have to.

Daughter is a US citizen

Luz shares her apartment with her husband, also from Mexico and also undocumented. They met in America. He works in a bar. They have a young daughter who was born in America and is therefore a US citizen.

"Last week, I had to go pick her up from school," Luz told me, explaining that there was no one around that day to collect her.

"I was late. I was 20 minutes late. And when I got to school, she was scared, and she was crying and crying, and I said: 'What happened?'

"She was like, 'mum, I thought you were taken. I thought I was not going to see you again'. I just hugged her and I was like, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you have to go through this'."

Luz sobbed as she recalled the moment.

Read more from Sky News:
All we know about Charlie Kirk shooting suspect
Trump's 'heated call' with Netanyahu

I asked Luz what her plan now was. What were she and her husband telling their daughter?

"We've been preparing her for a transition. We've been thinking about moving back to Mexico soon. We're going to leave everything behind to start a new life," she said, crying.

"It's hard. It's hard because most of my life I've been here in the US. I don't know how life is in Mexico. And I'm scared to go back."

America has changed. It voted for change. To belong here now no longer means what it did.

With her family, Luz will soon leave the country which adopted her 17 years ago.

Police were called just before 8.30am on Tuesday after the woman, who is in her 20s, reported being attacked by two white men in the area around Tame Road in Oldbury.

The Sikh Federation (UK) said the perpetrators allegedly told the woman during the attack: "You don't belong in this country, get out."

The woman, who is entitled to anonymity as the victim of a sex offence, issued a statement through community group Sikh Youth UK.

Thanking everyone for their support, she said: "We are going through a lot, but the strength and kindness shown by the right people in the community has been incredible and I can't thank them enough for being my voice.

"I would never wish this on anyone. All I was doing was going about my day on my way to work, and what has happened has deeply affected us."

Calling her family her "rock," she went on: "The police are doing their best to find those responsible, and I truly hope they are caught so that this doesn't happen to anyone else."

She said she was "truly humbled" by the love and support she'd received.

She added: "I want to personally thank my family, Sikh Youth UK, who have been so supportive, the local Gurdwara committees and Sikh orgs, and everyone in my community who has stood by me. I cannot thank you enough for helping me get through this difficult time."

An emergency meeting was later held at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara temple in Smethwick, a few miles from Oldbury, following concerns within the community.

Police are still trying to identify the perpetrators of the attack, which they say is being treated as "racially aggravated".

Officers said CCTV, forensic and other enquiries are well underway, but have appealed for anyone in the area who may have seen the men, or have any further information, to contact the force.

One of the men is described as having a shaved head, of heavy build, and was reported to be wearing a dark coloured sweatshirt and gloves.

The second man was reportedly wearing a grey top with a silver zip.

Lord Mandelson was this week stripped of his position as ambassador to the US amid fresh scrutiny over his years-long friendship with the convicted paedophile.

The prime minister initially defended the Labour peer but removed him from his post on Thursday after newly seen emails revealed he sent messages of support to Epstein even as he faced jail for sex offences in 2008.

Politics latest: 'Unite the Kingdom' rally takes place with counterprotest nearby

The Times has now reported that Downing Street and the Foreign Office were aware of the emails on Tuesday - a day before Sir Keir gave Lord Mandelson his backing at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs).

In a post on X, Conservative leader Ms Badenoch wrote: "Looks like the Prime Minister and Labour MPs spent the week lying to the whole country about what they knew regarding Mandelson's involvement with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein."

She continued: "If No 10 had those emails for 48 hours before acting, it means he lied at PMQs and ministers lied again about new additional information. These are yet more errors of judgment.

"The Prime Minister has very serious questions to answer. The only way to clear this up is full transparency about who knew what, and when."

👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈

Sources said Sir Keir was not aware of the contents of the emails when he told MPs he had "confidence" in Lord Mandelson.

A media enquiry outlining details of the messages between Lord Mandelson and Epstein was sent to the Foreign Office on Tuesday, and passed on to Number 10.

Sir Oliver Robbins, the permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, asked Lord Mandelson about the emails on Tuesday, but did not receive a response until the following day.

Sir Keir is understood not to have been aware of the contents of the emails until Wednesday evening.

Speaking to Sky News, one Labour MP called for more information on what happened behind closed doors at Number 10 this week.

Jo White, MP for Bassetlaw, in Nottinghamshire, said: "We cannot move on until we find out how he [Sir Keir] was not briefed properly before PMQs."

"What he needs to do now is get on top and sort out this mess," she said. "Suspend the whip from Peter Mandelson and expel him from the party, then have a transparent enquiry about what went wrong at Number 10."

The call came as Sir Keir enjoyed some time away from Downing Street.

The prime minister was on Saturday pictured watching Arsenal face Nottingham Forest in a Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium.

Lord Mandelson's exit came after less than a fortnight after another high-profile loss for the Labour government, as Angela Rayner was forced to quit as deputy prime minister and deputy Labour leader over her tax affairs.

As Sir Keir has faced a scandal-hit start to the month, a growing number of Labour MPs have begun calling his leadership into question.

Read more from Sky News:
Mandelson's exit leaves Trump visit in the lurch
What we know about Mandelson-Epstein relationship

Lucy Powell, who is running to replace Ms Rayner as Labour's deputy leader, has called for a "change of culture" at Downing Street.

"We've got a bit of a groupthink happening at the top, that culture of not being receptive to interrogation, not being receptive to differing views," she told The Guardian newspaper.

Meanwhile, senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry has written to the new foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, demanding answers about the vetting process for UK diplomats in the wake of Lord Mandelson's sacking.