Hundreds of antifa and socialist protesters clashed with police in London hours after Boris Johnson’s triumphant election victory, prompting critics to accuse the anti-fascist activists of being anti-democratic.
The activists swarmed outside U.K. government buildings in Whitehall, chanting, “One solution, revolution” and “Tory scum, off our streets” and pushing back against officers attempting to hold them back, as shown on video posted on social media.
Some protesters, some of whom wore black and covered their faces, could be seen waving a black-and-red antifa flag in the Thursday night melee. The “Defy Tory Rule” signs bore the “Socialist Worker” imprint.
The [U.K.] Sun blasted the protesters as “deniers of democracy,” while the [U.K.] Daily Mail called them “sore losers.”
“Hundreds of Antifa protesters clash with police outside Downing Street” in angry reaction to the U.K. election results: https://t.co/XGUt0P5GFQ pic.twitter.com/uGwMXzmlUc
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) December 14, 2019
Antifa was never about civil protesthttps://t.co/v3ArMf3m5L
— Jimmy Tuesday (@JTuesday) December 14, 2019
Conservative commentators compared the protests to those that broke out after Donald Trump won the November 2016 presidential election.
“Do you recall how the Antifa riots after President Donald Trump won? How they actually rioted and destroyed things in Washington, D.C. when Trump was inaugurated?” said RedState’s David Arama.
“Well, the radical leftists who can’t take losing were at it in Britain too, after the huge Conservative win.
This gives you an idea of how badly they lost.”
Mr. Johnson’s Conservative Party won 43.6% of the vote in Thursday’s election, easily besting Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, which took 32.2%.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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