What was claimed
A video shows the Unite the Kingdom march that took place on 16 May 2026.
Our verdict
This footage is actually from the Unite the Kingdom march in September 2025.
Video of 2025 Unite the Kingdom protest shared as last weekend’s march
Some social media posts about the Unite the Kingdom march that took place in London on Saturday 16 May have included old footage of the September 2025 march.
Posts shared thousands of times across Facebook and Instagram show a large crowd crossing Westminster Bridge and are captioned “London today”, or claim to show footage from “just hours ago”.
The most recent Unite the Kingdom march route did not cross Westminster Bridge and was confined to the north of the River Thames. The 13 September 2025 march and rally, however, began on Stamford Street, just off the IMAX roundabout south of Waterloo Bridge, and did cross over Westminster Bridge.
We also found the exact same clip being shared in September 2025.
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How many people attended the latest protest?
One version of the post claims “millions” took part in the march, which is false.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told us it estimates that around 60,000 people took part in last weekend’s march and Professor Milad Haghani, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne and expert in crowd dynamics, also told Full Fact that claims millions attended was “completely fanciful and more of a product of imagination and gross exaggeration”.
The May 2026 march is estimated to have been much smaller than the one in September 2025. The Met previously estimated between 110,000 to 150,000 people attended the march in September.
Videos which are miscaptioned to suggest they refer to a different event than the one they portray can persuade people to believe things are true when they are not.
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 missing context because this footage is actually from the Unite the Kingdom march in September 2025, not May 2026.