UKIP blocked from Whitechapel Rally as Far-Right activists compared to Oswald Mosley

Adam Lenson’s musical retells the story of 1936, when the British Union of Fascists, or Blackshirts as they were known at the time, led an anti-Semitic and anti-migrant rally through the East End in the Battle of Cable Street, before they were forced out by local residents, Jewish community groups and unions.

But Lenson is worried that 90 years later, the same story could play out in Whitechapel once again.

On Saturday, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) was blocked by the Metropolitan Police from marching through the streets of Tower Hamlets, because of the risk of “serious violence” in an area which has "the largest percentage of Muslim residents anywhere in the UK".

This is the second time that UKIP has been blocked from protesting in Whitechapel in recent months, after the party said in October last year that it wanted to “reclaim Whitechapel from the Islamists”.

Instead, UKIP protestors were instructed to move their demonstration to Marble Arch in central London, while Stand Up to Racism counter protestors descended on Whitechapel to promote a pro-migrant message.

UKIP claimed that the police had "caved into the Islamists”.

Adam Lenson had told LBC before UKIP was banned from marching through Whitechapel for the second time that he can see alarming parallels between tensions now and in the 1930s.

“The world continues to not learn from its history”, Lenson tells LBC, as the grandson of a Jewish man who himself grew up off Cable Street as an immigrant back in 1936.

Talking about the Battle of Cable Street, Lenson tells LBC, “immigrant communities put aside their differences to force fascists to retreat, and whilst it's just one event in a history which led to WW2, it stands as a really important and proud part of London's history where London stood up for community and multiculturalism."

The musical Cable Street has returned to the theatre for its third iteration, this time at Marylebone Theatre.

And yet, Lenson says that the message of inclusivity in the musical is needed now more than ever.

"Fascism is trying to rip apart core parts of our society . There are people trying to do what Oswald Mosley tried to do in the 1930s", Lenson has told LBC.

"The way mainstream politics is discussing identity and immigration is terrifying."

"It seems to have escalated and darkened since 2018 and the aftermath of Brexit. People feel more frozen as to what to do."

Lenson's father had a hat shop on Cable Street and his family arrived in the UK as Jewish immigrants following a pogrom in Russia.

So for Lenson, the story is particularly pertinent.

"It's a story of immigration and it's a proud part of our history. Immigrant communities came together to say not in our street, not in our name. We need to do the same now and fight for immigrants", Lenson told LBC.

On the making of Cable Street, Lenson said that "in 2018, at the time of writing, the writers were hoping that the show would get less relevant, not more relevant, and it feels as the show has gone on, the messages of the show have seldom been more important.”

Set designer for the musical, Yoav Segal, is the grandson of one of the organisers of the Battle of Cable Street back in 1936.

Segal has told LBC that “Muslims are the current bette noir for the far-right.”

“The horrors of social media are pushing everyone to extremes, like the 1930s on crack”, Segal says. “I worry about where all this is going to end up.”

UKIP held a demonstration with around 200 people in central London on Saturday, stating that ‘Britain is a Christian land’ and that ‘Christians will not bend the knee to Islamism.'

UKIP has told LBC: 'The comparison between UKIP and Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts is so offensively ignorant that it does not warrant a response.

"To compare the persecution of Jewish people in Britain, to a peaceful Christian march isn't just politically biased, it is inane.

"Mr Lenson is really scraping the barrel in order to sell tickets to his struggling musical - speaking of which, 1930's British Jews would be more offended by their resistance to fascism being degraded to a musical, than our march. In fact they would most likely be marching with us."