List of protests in the United Kingdom

This is a list of protests and protest movements in the United Kingdom. Protest in the UK has concerned issues such as suffrage in the 19th and early 20th centuries, parliamentary reform from the Chartists to the present day, poverty, wages and working conditions, fuel prices, war, human rights, immigration (both for and against), fathers' rights, LGBTQ rights and climate change. In Northern Ireland, protest marches have been particularly contentious, including Bloody Sunday.

Around April 2019 London's Metropolitan Police decided, as a matter of policy, to stop providing crowd estimates unless there were specific reasons to do so (criminal justice, national security).^[1] This policy appears to have been reversed in late 2023, with the media reporting official police estimates for crowds from October that year, as shown in the table.

[1]

No.	Date	Protest	Cause	Organisers	Location	Attendance
No.	Date	Protest	Cause	Organisers	Location	Organisers' estimate	Police estimate	Third-party estimates
1	15 February 2003	Stop the War	Iraq War	Stop the War Coalition (StWC)	London	1,500,000^[2]	750,000^[3]	"around a million"^[4]
2	23 March 2019	Put it to the People march	Second EU referendum	People's Vote, European Movement UK, Open Britain	London	1,000,000^[5]		312,000 to 400,000^[6]^[7]
3	19 October 2019	Let Us Be Heard	Second EU referendum	People's Vote, European Movement UK, Open Britain	London	1,000,000^[8]		105,000 to 216,000^[9]
4	11 November 2023	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)	London	800,000^[10]	300,000^[10]
5	20 October 2018	People's Vote march	Second EU referendum	People's Vote, European Movement UK, Open Britain	London	700,000^[11]		450,000^[12]
6	26 March 2011	March for the Alternative	Austerity	Trades Union Congress (TUC)	London	500,000^[13]	250,000 (more than)^[14]
7	28 October 2023	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	500,000^[15]	50,000 to 70,000^[16]
8	13 January 2024	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	500,000 (more than)^[17]
9	22 March 2003	Stop the War	Iraq War	Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)	London	500,000 (StWC), 200,000-300,000 (CND)^[18]	200,000^[18]
10	23 September 2002	Liberty & Livelihood	Hunting and countryside causes	Countryside Alliance	London	407,791^[19]	400,000^[19]
11	22 October 1983	CND march for peace	Nuclear weapons	Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament	London	400,000^[20]	200,000^[21]
12	24 September 2002	Stop the War	Iraq War	Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain (MAB)	London	400,000^[22]	150,000^[22]^[23]
13	9 March 2024	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	400,000^[24]		"tens of thousands"^[25]
14	21 October 2023	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	300,000^[26]	100,000^[27]
15	25 November 2023	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	300,000^[28]	45,000^[29]
16	17 February 2024	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	250,000^[30]	30,000^[30]
17	24 October 1981	CND march for peace	Nuclear weapons	Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament	London	250,000^[31]
18	2 July 2005	Make Poverty History	Raise awareness of global poverty	Various, coordinated by British Overseas NGOs for Development (bond)	Edinburgh	225,000^[32]	225,000^[32]	225,000^[32]
19	13 July 2018	Stop Trump	Trump's visit to the UK	Various	London	250,000^[33]
20	23 November 1985	Ulster Says No	Anglo-Irish Agreement	Democratic Unionist Party, Ulster Unionist Party	Belfast	203,000^[34]		100,000^[35]
21	18 November 2003	George W. Bush's state visit to the UK	George W. Bush's Foreign Policy (Bush Doctrine)	Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,Muslim Association of Britain	London	200,000^[36]	100,000^[36]
22	3 February 2024	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	200,000 (CND)^[37]	20,000^[38]
23	30 March 2024	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	200,000 ^[39]
24	31 March 1990	1990 Poll tax protest	Poll tax	All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation	London	200,000^[40]
25	16 May 1832	Meeting of the Unions	Suffrage	Birmingham Political Union	Birmingham			200,000^[41]^[42]
26	22 May 2021	PSC March for Palestine	2021 Israel–Palestine crisis	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	180,000^[43]
27	14 October 2023	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	150,000^[44]
28	26 March 2022	UK with Ukraine	Russian invasion of Ukraine	European Movement UK, Mayor of London	London	150,000^[45]
29	1 April 1961	Aldermaston Marches	Nuclear weapons	Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament	London to Berkshire	150,000^{[citation needed]}
30	4 October 1936	Battle of Cable Street	Anti-fascist response to the British Union of Fascists march.	Various anti-fascist groups: Communists (Communist Party of Great Britain),Socialists, Trade unionists, Anarchists, British Jews, Independent Labour Party	London			100,000^[46]-310,000^[47]
31	31 January 2009	2009 BTF protest	Tamil genocide Sri Lanka's genocide of Tamils	British Tamils Forum	London	150,000^[48]	50,000^[49]
32	26 November 2023	March Against Antisemitism	Rise in antisemitism	Campaign Against Antisemitism	London	100,000^[50]	50,000^[51]
33	9 December 2023	PSC March for Palestine	Gaza war	Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London	100,000^[52]	40,000^[53]
34	17 March 1968	Grosvenor Square peace march	Vietnam War	Vietnam Solidarity Campaign	London	100,000^[54]	20,000^[55]^{[better source needed]}	10,000^[56]
35	18 November 2001	Stop the war	Afghanistan War	Stop the War Coalition	London	100,000^[57]	15,000^[57]
36	6 November 2021	COP26 Nature Day march & rally	Climate change	COP26 Coalition	Glasgow	100,000^[58]
37	19 September 2019	September 2019 Youth Climate Strikes	Climate change	UK Student Climate Network	London	100,000^[59]
38	23 June 2018	People's Vote March	Second EU referendum	People's Vote, European Movement UK, Open Britain	London	100,000^[60]
39	18 March 2006	Stop British involvement in the Iraq War	Iraq War	Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,Muslim Association of Britain	London	80,000-100,000^[61]	15,000^[61]
40	15 February 2003	Stop the War	Iraq War	Stop the War Coalition	Glasgow	80,000 (more than)^[62]	30,000^[62]	100,000^[63]
41	4 June 2019	Stop Trump	Trump's State Visit to the UK	Stop Trump coalition	London	75,000^[64]
42	28 March 1959	Aldermaston march	Nuclear weapons	Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament	London to Berkshire	60,000^{[citation needed]}
43	16 August 1819	Gathering at Peterloo (leads to the Peterloo Massacre)	Reform parliamentary representation	Manchester Patriotic Union	Manchester			60,000^[65]
44	10 November 2010	Fund Our Future: Stop Education Cuts	Education cuts	National Union of Students	London	52,000^[66]
45	10 January 2009	Ceasefire in Gaza	Gaza War (2008–2009)	Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, Palestine Solidarity Campaign	London		20,000^[67]	50,000^[67]
46	28 March 2009	March for Jobs, Justice & Climate	2009 G20 London summit	Put People First	London	35,000^[68]	35,000^[68]
47	28 February 2020	Climate Strike	Climate change	Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate	Bristol	30,000^[69]	15,000^[69]

List of protests in the United Kingdom

By size

By cause

Suffrage and democracy

Poverty

Labour disputes

Rights

Race and immigration

Taxation

Environment

Animal rights

War

Nuclear

Religion

Art and culture

Foreign policy

Anti-capitalist/anti-globalisation

Troubles in Northern Ireland

Other

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Wikiwand - on