Hundreds of thousands of Britons took to the streets, holding a peaceful protest that Keir Starmer went out of his way to classify as an example of hateful xenophobic activism.
Their message was simple: the people want British politicians to start listening to Britons.
The Unite the Kingdom rally took place not many days after Reform UK won massive victories in the council elections, absolutely devastating Labour’s political standing in the country, and almost certainly ending Keir Starmer’s career in politics.
No screaming. No fires. No broken glass. No threats, or machetes, or chants of “Allahu Akbar.”
Just well-mannered, civilized Brits working to save their country from barbarism. pic.twitter.com/QkIgZtyo2S
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) May 16, 2026
The Empire is striking back, using the Online Safety Act to silence Reform UK on social media platforms.
More footage from the massive protests today in London: pic.twitter.com/q40i4lBozK
— Ben Swann (@BenSwann_) May 16, 2026
🚨 Labour is using the “Online Safety Act” to silence political opponents, and TikTok is doing their dirty work.
First, TikTok removed my video announcing Reform UK’s new policy to place secure illegal migrant detention centres in non-Reform constituencies, prioritising Green… pic.twitter.com/twXBk1uRcN
— Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) May 17, 2026
🚨 Labour is using the “Online Safety Act” to silence political opponents, and TikTok is doing their dirty work.
First, TikTok removed my video announcing Reform UK’s new policy to place secure illegal migrant detention centres in non-Reform constituencies, prioritising Green ones.
TikTok explicitly cited the Online Safety Act as the reason for its removal.
This is hard evidence of this draconian legislation being weaponised to silence political opponents.
That same video has 6.2 million views on other platforms.
Today, the censorship escalated.
TikTok has now removed my video outlining the key policies I would implement as Home Secretary, claiming it is “Hate Speech and Hateful Behaviour.”
They warned me that any further “violations” will result in a strike, potentially leading to being de-platformed altogether.
This is all the more staggering given TikTok happily hosts hundreds of videos of people calling for the assassination of Nigel Farage.
My TikTok videos had received 18 million views over the previous 28 days.
This is a chilling attempt to silence one of the biggest and fastest-growing UK political accounts on the platform.
TikTok is engaging in direct political interference in the midst of the most pivotal elections in our country’s history.
All under the auspice of the “Online Safety Act” that the Tories and Labour claimed to be about protecting children.
It is, and always will be about silencing voices the open-borders political establishment don’t like.
@TikTokComms have decided to try and suppress Reform.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
Zia Yousef is Reform UK’s Shadow Home Secretary, and the video that TikTok yanked at the request of the British government was there to lay out Reform’s agenda if and when they win Parliamentary elections. Labour doesn’t want the British people to hear Reform UK’s case, so…they silenced it.
This video from @ZiaYusufUK on immigration has been removed by TikTok for “Hate Speech”.
This is unacceptable political interference from a big tech company.
Does @TikTokComms believe in free speech or not? pic.twitter.com/7UKgTnnexd
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) May 17, 2026
Keir Starmer keeps insisting that Britain has free speech, and is the home of free speech activism. He pushed back on Trump and Vance when they pointed out that 30 people a day are arrested for saying things the government does not like, insisting that he was merely protecting the public from incitement.
But the reality is that the government wants to control what people see, hear, and think.
‘The optics for this don’t look good at all for the Met!’
GB News’ Home and Security Editor Mark White reports on the Met confirming that facial recognition technology is to be used at the upcoming Unite the Kingdom Rally. pic.twitter.com/fXbXQC0pmn
— GB News (@GBNEWS) May 14, 2026
Starmer kept speakers from outside the UK from attending the rally, including Members of the European Parliament with Diplomatic passports, on the accusation that they would incite the crowd and spread hate speech. He deployed facial recognition at the Unite the Kingdom rally, but not the counterprotest where the crowd called for murder of Tommy Robinson.
SHOCKING EXCL: “Shoot him in the neck like Charlie Kirk” far-left protesters call for Tommy Robinson to be “hung like Mussolini”.
I don’t think incitement to violence on EITHER side is right. Calling for anyone’s death is too far. pic.twitter.com/fq3OErVKtE
— Samara Gill (@SamaramGill) May 16, 2026
Silencing your political opponents because you disagree with their agenda is authoritarianism at its finest.
It’s no surprise that Labour is now explicitly saying they want to rejoin the European Union, and that the European Union keeps talking about a strategic relationship with China. They see China as the political model of the future.
Multiple outlets have reported “30 arrests a day for speech” in Britain.
It’s worse.
Under the Public Order Act 1986, s4a and 5 alone, we see an average of 27 convictions daily – mot mere arrests. Triple that number for an estimate of arrests. An average of 10,000-18,000… https://t.co/hR3f6cTswk pic.twitter.com/Z2KvyD1n61
— Michael Reiners (@MCRReiners) May 17, 2026
Multiple outlets have reported “30 arrests a day for speech” in Britain.
It’s worse.
Under the Public Order Act 1986, s4a and 5 alone, we see an average of 27 convictions daily – mot mere arrests. Triple that number for an estimate of arrests. An average of 10,000-18,000 convictions each year. Under one act.
The cumulative ‘recorded’ speech offences in Britain is around 1.2million annually. 1/5th of all recorded crime.
Our Freedom of Speech Bill, published by @ASI, becomes ever more necessary: https://adamsmith.org/research/the-freedom-of-speech-bill-2026
The fact that the man they silenced for being a racist, xenophobic spreader of anti-immigrant hate speech is named Zia Yousuf is the icing on the cake.
Starmer’s imminent departure is not going to change anything, I am afraid. The new boss will be same as the old boss.
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