Anti-mass immigration campaigner Tommy Robinson was verbally and physically abused by demonstrators on a pro-Islam march on Saturday, after approaching them and attempting to engage in conversation. Police detained him and ordered him off the streets, saying this was “easier” than “taking on” the aggressive protestors.

Luton-based activist Tommy Robinson was joined by Rebel Media reporter Caolan Robertson, approaching demonstrators to ask their views on issues such as female genital mutilation and sexual grooming.

Within five minutes of arriving at the protest, according to Robertson, the pair were surrounded by people shouting “Nazi, white supremacist!”, resulting in attending police officers detaining Robinson.

Footage shows Robinson approaching a man screaming “Nazi scum!” and asking for him to explain why he is a Nazi.

A policewoman quickly removes Robinson from the scene, asking him to “respect that these people don’t want to talk to you”.

A subsequent attempt by Robinson to engage a student protestor about her views on Islam is terminated by an aggressive older male, who pushes him away shouting: “We don’t want a Nazi on this demo. Get off!”

Robinson tries to mollify the man by explaining that he is just trying to have a “polite conversation”, but the male begins screaming about losing family in the Holocaust and whips up unruly chants of “Nazi scum, off our streets!”

It is at this point that Robinson is dragged away by the police, who attempt to separate him from Robertson and his camera.

When Robinson asks why he is the one being manhandled when it is the demonstrators who are being aggressive, a female officer explains bluntly that “it’s easier to remove you” than to “take on” the angry crowd.

She also claims Robinson is the one causing the violence “by his sheer presence”.

Footage shot at another point on the march shows Robinson attempting to ask demonstrators their view on the oppression of women under Shariah, and being told “You’re a racist” repeatedly.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Robinson finally asks.

“Yes it is!” the demonstrator replies.

Elsewhere, a protestor tells Robinson she is on the march because it feels as though years of anti-racism leislation has been for nothing.

“What if I told you that, statistically, white people are the biggest victims of racism in the UK?” Robinson asks.

“White people can’t be victims of racism,” she scoffs.

In fact, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) found that most victims of racism in England and Wales were white as long ago as 1999, in a report titled “Racial Attacks and Harassment”.

Scottish statistics published in 2015 show that “White Britons” are also the most common victims of race hate crimes north of the border. Scotland’s first ever racially-motivated murder victim was a white schoolboy named Kriss Donald, who was kidnapped, stabbed 13 times, and burned alive by a Pakistani gang in an unprovoked attack in 2004.

Finally, a figure Robinson identified as Unite Against Fascism leader Raymond Bennett begins abusing Robinson and has the police remove him a second time.

“They don’t want to debate their issues because they’re so blinkered, so fascist,” Robinson tells Robertson. “These people’s views have never been challenged … they’ve been indoctrinated.”

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery