Billy Bragg says London march sends message to far right: “The people of Britain will not allow themselves to be fooled by such shysters”

Billy Bragg has spoken about yesterday’s massive march in London, saying it will send a message to the “shysters” on the far right in the UK.

The protest on Saturday (March 28) was organised by the Together Alliance and they claimed that half a million people took to the streets of central London to stand up for unity and to build public awareness about the growing threat of the far right in the UK and beyond.

Bragg was one of the performers to play on the ‘House Against Hate’ stage that was assembled in Trafalgar Square for the demonstration, alongside the likes of Self Esteem, Hot Chip, Jessie Ware and Katy B, and he has now shared a reflection on the experience.

Writing on Instagram, Bragg said that he felt “greatly inspired” by the protest, adding: “The concerns that people have about rising cost of living, widening gaps between the rich and poor, an over-stretched NHS, the lack of affordable housing and the effects of the climate crisis cannot be solved by rounding up people of colour and forcing them to ‘remigrate’.”

Addressing the target of the demonstration, he continued: “Between now and the next election, there will be politicians of the Far-age right and the far right who will bang the drum for remigration in the hope that no one will ask them how they intend to address those aforementioned problems. Yesterday suggests that the people of Britain will not allow themselves to be fooled by such shysters.”

He likened the event to the Rock Against Racism and Anti-Nazi League campaigns of the late ‘70s, and noted that he was joined on stage yesterday by The Specials’ Jerry Dammers, another veteran of those earlier movements.

“What I found most encouraging yesterday was the number of young people in attendance,” Bragg added. “I hope yesterday saw the introduction of a new generation of activists whose lives will be changed by what they saw and heard on the march. Because by being there, they have joined an anti-fascist tradition that stretches back not just to Rock Against Racism in the 1970s, but all the way back to the Battle of Cable Street in 1936.”

Billy Bragg on stage at the Together Alliance march

Where he also pays tribute to the people of Minneapolis who stood up against ICE

“Last year’s Unite the Kingdom march organised by Tommy Robinson was the most divisive event in the country over the last ten years”… pic.twitter.com/kj1R2jtXy9

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) March 29, 2026

During his performance at the rally, Bragg addressed the crowd, saying: “Last year’s Unite the Kingdom march…organised by Tommy Robinson was the most divisive event in the country over the last ten years. Commentators were saying these people have justified concerns – that may be the case, but their solutions are not justifiable in any way. Remigration, the forced deportation of our fellow citizens, we’ve seen what that looks like in the USA. And if it does come to that in this country, then we will have to be as courageous as the people of Minneapolis.”

Others to take to the ‘House Against Hate’ stage included the Green Party leader Zack Polanski and Hannah Spencer MP, who won the hotly-contested Gorton and Denton by-election for the Greens last month.

Polanski told the crowd: “Go back to your communities, to the community centres, to your trade unions, to your friends, to your neighbours. We must organise in our communities. Local elections are coming in just a few weeks’ time.”

“There have been dark times, I know people have been scared and we have been afraid, but days like this are here to send a message – a message to Tommy Robinson, to Nigel Farage, to those who appease them,” he continued. “We will defeat hate. It’s time to make hope normal again.”

Actress and presenter Jameela Jamil was also at the protest and shared her own reflections afterwards on Instagram. “I have been really struggling lately,” she wrote. “Drowning in hopelessness. Sometimes I think protests don’t make a difference because the people at the top don’t care about what we think or want, or how we feel. But today reminded me of why they’re important. Because of MORALE for US not the people at the top. It reminds you that good TRULY outweighs bad. That hate is loud but small. That everyone from every walk of life can come together for such a wholesome cause. I love this country. Today was FUN. It made hatred look so crusty, boring and stressful. Everyone today was hot and cool and the vibes were immaculate.”

The demonstration was in part a response to the emergence of far-right protests over the last two years. In September 2025, the Metropolitan police estimated that between 110,000 and 150,000 people attended the so-called “unite the kingdom” rally in central London, where Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk were among the speakers. An estimated 5000 anti-fascist counter-protesters faced the far-right activist-led rally that day.

In 2024, thousands of anti-racism protestors rallied together across the UK in response to the anti-immigrant rallies that followed the Southport killings. Bragg, Nadine Shah, Tim Burgess, and Garbage were among those to be part of the anti-racism marches on that occasion.