The antisemitic conspiracy theorist David Icke was loudly cheered as he addressed more than 10,000 people at an anti-lockdown demonstration in central London on Saturday, at which far-right placards and flags were openly displayed.

The former sports presenter - who has previously spoken of  "global conspiracy Rothschild-Zionism" - was joined on stage by Jeremy Corbyn's brother Piers and other leading coronavirus-deniers  at the “Unite For Freedom” protest in Trafalgar Square.

One protester was photographed at Saturday's gathering holding a flag displaying the symbol of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists.

Several other attendees held placards promoting the antisemitic QAnon conspiracy theory which revolves around the idea of an all-powerful, world-ruling cabal controlling the world.

One of the rally's organisers, who introduced themselves from the stage as a leading figure in the Save Our Rights UK organisation, was applauded for a speech in which she claimed George Soros was responsible for the funding of abortion as well as the Black Lives Matters movement.

Other pictures from the demonstration showed Trafalgar Square almost full of protesters , none of whom were wearing protective masks, holding signs that branded the pandemic as a “hoax”.

Another homemade placard read “no to mandatory vaccines”.

In his speech Mr Icke urged the crowd not to wear masks to protect themselves from Covid-19 or to stay in their homes during lockdown conditions. Saying: "This world is controlled by a tiny few people" who "impose their agenda on billions of people."

He also told the police in attendance at the demo that they were "enforcing fascism that your own children will have to live with" and urged them to "join us and stop serving the psychopaths."

On coronavirus he added:  “We have a virus so intelligent that it only infects those taking part in protests the government wants to stop." 

Mr Icke has in the past accused Jews of helping to plan the coronavirus outbreak and of secretly being behind antisemitic attacks on their own communities.  He has also suggested that Adolf Hitler was Jewish and an agent of Zionism – both in books sold on Amazon and most recently in a video uploaded to YouTube in March of this year. 

In April he suggested Israel was using the pandemic to "test its technology". Following the controversial broadcast by London Live, YouTube and Facebook removed the video from their platform. 

A similar demo took place in Berlin, Germany, at  which far-right extremists attempted to storm the Reichstag parliament building and other protestors again held QAnon banners.