Pictures: Thousands Protest in London Against Vaccine Passports

Thousands of anti-lockdown protesters marched through London on Saturday, railing against the coronavirus restrictions that remain in place in Britain and the possibility of vaccine passports being implemented.

The march, which was attended by London mayoral candidates Laurence Fox and David Kurten, began in Hyde Park when a flash mob organised by flares assembled around 1 p.m.

One protester told Breitbart London that she is concerned about the implementation of vaccine passports, saying that she believed it would be the “beginning of the end”.

Asked how she felt about Boris Johnson’s response to the coronavirus, she said that she believes the Prime Minister is “middle management”, saying that “he’s just following orders and I think he’s on his way out. I think he’s just doing a job and getting well paid for it.”

On social media, activists claimed that hundreds of thousands turned out to the rally, although figures from the mainstream media estimated the number at around 10,000.

The anti-lockdown protest was largely peaceful until police officers attempted to disperse crowds towards the end of the evening when demonstrators gathered in Hyde Park again.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that eight officers were injured during the altercation and that five people were arrested.

The coverage of the anti-lockdown demo by BBC reporters, who accused the protesters of promoting “conspiracy theories” including supposed QAnon slogans, prompted a widespread backlash on social media, with the hashtag #DefundTheBBC trending on Twitter in Britain.

The campaign director of the #DefundTheBBC group, Rebecca Ryan, wrote: “Same old QAnon smears and conspiracy theories as used against Brexit supporters. When will the BBC learn?”

“It didn’t work then and it won’t work now,” she added.

Over the past few weeks, there has been growing opposition to the notion of implementing internal vaccine passports in Britain, with business leaders, church leaders, and politicians from the Conservative and Labour Party coming out against the scheme.

A review on how to craft a digital health pass is currently being headed up by Cabinet Minister Michael Gove, who previously flatly denied that the government would push such a system domestically.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for his part, has played down the notion of introducing vaccine passports during the initial phases of the re-opening of the country, but has left the door open to the idea, saying that health passes are likely to become a “feature of our lives”.

Full video coverage of the anti-lockdown protest with Breitbart News’ James Delingpole will be published by Breitbart London this afternoon.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka