Politics

YouTuber Niko Omilana's undercover exposé of Unite the Kingdom rally branded ‘terrifying’

Niko Omilana/YouTube

Niko Omilana - the YouTube prankster, former London mayoral candidate and “supreme leader” of the “Niko Defence League” (NDL) – has made a name for himself exposing and ridiculing members of the English Defence League, Ku Klux Klan and Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

And now, the content creator - who has more than eight million subscribers on YouTube and will appear on The Celebrity Traitors next month – has continued his series of undercover videos by interviewing people at Stephen Yaxley-Lennon/Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally which took place in London last month.

Between 110,000 and 150,000 people attended the demonstration, which saw around 26 police officers injured (four seriously hurt) and 24 arrests, and included speeches from far-right criminal Robinson and Twitter/X owner Elon Musk.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer went on to condemn the “plastic patriotism” at the protest, and said the event “sent a shiver through so many of our communities who now feel more scared than they did before”.

Explaining his plan at the start of the video, which he uploaded to his channel on Saturday, Omilana said: “Despite questionable groups confirming they’ll be attending, we’re being told that they’re not racist and it’s just slander by the media. So I decided to go undercover myself and find out people’s motivations for going, and also, see if there actually is racism, or, if it’s just one big smelly lie.”

Spoiler alert: it was a lot of the former.

Disguised as a white man known as ‘Ron Side’ (a reference to the time he had to pretend his name was ‘Ringside’ to fake a pass and sneak into a KSI boxing match), Omilana met one woman, who was sitting down at a bus stop, who said people need to “stand up”.

Ironic.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Other comments contained in the video are far too horrific to quote directly, but the 31-minute video includes protesters comfortably using racial slurs and airing Islamophobic views, stating they would remove all Black people from the UK if they could, and calling for immigrants to be shot and small boats to be sunk.

In true Omilana fashion, the YouTuber also managed to get one individual to declare that his second favourite British dish was the curry.

Yes, really.

But in one chilling moment, Omilana spoke to a woman named Alesha who, when asked what she would do if she saw a Black person, revealed she had three knives in her bag and would use them.

That same woman went on to tell ‘Ron’ that her dad is from Mauritius. We’re not joking.

Rounding off the video, Omilana concluded: “From this, I think it’s clear to say there’s a clear racism and Islamophobia issue in the UK.

“I don’t believe everyone at this march is racist, but it’s clear a lot of racists feel very comfortable being involved, and instead of anyone here calling it out, it’s completely denied.”

Omilana has since received a flood of support and praise for the video, with comedian Guz Khan calling him the “GOAT” (greatest of all time) for “doing what he does best”:

Twitter/X user Mukhtar added: “Tommy Robinson said it was about unity. We all know it wasn’t from the speakers on the stage to Elon Musk telling them to fight or die. Niko exposed the racists on the ground”:

Zara Mohammed, former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said the video makes for “unbelievable watching”, writing that “the confident expression of utter racism, shocking Islamophobia and violent hatred for others is terrifying”:

House of Lords member Meral Hussein-Ece thanked Omilana for “exposing” racism which was “out there, loud and clear”:

Another Twitter/X user tweeted: “These are the same people who say knife crime in London is high.”

And a third said Omilana’s voice is “so important”:

Support can also be found in the video’s comments on YouTube, with one writing: “Your ability to humiliate people without them having any idea is incredible.”

“Niko gotta be one of the bravest people alive,” commented another.

A third comment reads: “As a Muslim this was a hard watch but I appreciate everything you do Niko, truly grateful to have people like you using their platform to actually create a difference.”

With another viewer writing: “As funny and amusing as this video is; Niko has always smashed it with content like this! Making sure the real hidden agendas are revealed, and enlightening the masses by using his platform. It’s not easy to do something like this, putting himself in danger. So hats off to you.”

The video has more than 1.1 million views at the time of writing, along with 93,000 likes.

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