What was claimed
It’s been confirmed by the Metropolitan Police that of the 26 people arrested at the “Unite the Kingdom” protests only eight were involved in the march, and 18 of those arrested were counter-protesters.
Our verdict
This is false. The Metropolitan Police hasn’t said this—it’s said 24 people were arrested, of which 23 were believed to be people involved in the "Unite the Kingdom" protest, with one believed to have been involved in the counter-protest.
What was claimed
Only 30% of the arrests on Saturday were “Unite the Kingdom” protesters, with 70% being counter-protesters.
Our verdict
There’s no evidence that this is the case. The Met Police have said of the 24 arrested, 23 were believed to have been involved in the main protest, with one believed to have been involved in the counter-protest.
We’ve spotted several social media posts making claims about the numbers of arrests related to the “Unite the Kingdom” march in London on Saturday 13 September.
Some claim that the Metropolitan Police said that eight people who took part in the march were arrested with the other 18 arrested being counter-protesters, while others claimed that 70% of people arrested were counter-protesters.
But there’s no evidence these figures are correct, and the Metropolitan Police hasn’t issued any such numbers. Instead, it said it made 24 arrests on Saturday (not 26), with 23 believed to be people involved in the Unite the Kingdom protest, and one believed to have been involved in the counter-protest.
One social media post shared hundreds of times said: “It’s now been CONFIRMED by the Met Police that of the 26 arrests reported by the media only 8 were attributed to UTK British Patriots! 18 arrests were counter protest agitators!”
Other social media posts claimed “only 30% of the arrests on Saturday were Uniting the Kingdom protesters, with 70% being counter-protesters”.
Join 72,330 people who trust us to check the facts
Subscribe to get weekly updates on politics, immigration, health and more.
On the day of the protest the Met initially said 25 people had been arrested for a range of offences and that 26 police officers had been injured. It revised that arrest number to 24 the following day. It did not initially say how many of those arrested were believed to be protesters or counter-protesters.
On 17 September, the force said on X (formerly Twitter) that it was “aware of posts on X about arrests” and that 23 of the 24 arrested “were believed to be people involved in the Unite the Kingdom protest”.
An update on the Metropolitan Police website on 15 September said those arrested ranged in age from 19 and 58 and that three were women and the rest were men.
We’ve also seen social media posts making various different claims about how many people the police said had attended the protest. As we’ve explained previously, the Metropolitan Police estimated that between 110,000 and 150,000 people attended.
Before sharing content that you see online, first consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the Metropolitan Police said 23 of the 24 people arrested were believed to be people involved in the Unite the Kingdom protest, with one believed to have been involved in the counter-protest.
Full Fact fights for good, reliable information in the media, online, and in politics.
Bad information ruins lives. It promotes hate, damages people’s health, and hurts democracy. You deserve better.