Thousands across UK protest coronation of King Charles

Thousands of people across Britain are rallying on Saturday to protest the coronation of King Charles, as an anti-monarchy group said it would mount the biggest protest against a UK monarch in history.

In London, hundreds of protesters chanted and held up signs saying "Not My King". The protestors also demanded an elected head of state.

Some held up signs saying "privatise them" and "abolish the monarchy, not the right to protest".

The anti-monarchy protesters say that the royal family has no place in a modern constitutional democracy and is staggeringly expensive to maintain.

Hours before the coronation, police arrested the leader of the anti-monarchy group Republic. The group said its leader Graham Smith had been detained on Saturday morning.

A photo posted on Twitter showed Smith sitting on the ground surrounded by police officers. Republic said hundreds of its placards had been seized.

Protests also took place in Glasgow in Scotland and Cardiff in Wales, with signs held up saying: "Abolish the monarchy, feed the people."

On social media, many contrasted the cost of living crisis in Britain with the pomp and pageantry on display at the coronation.

Polls suggest support for the British monarchy is declining and is weakest among young people. A poll by YouGov last month found 64% of people in Britain said they had little or no interest in the coronation. Among those aged 18 to 24, the number voicing little or no interest rose to 75%.

With the crown passing from Queen Elizabeth to her less popular son, republican activists hope Charles will be the last British monarch to be crowned.

"It has a hereditary billionaire individual born into wealth and privilege who basically symbolises the inequality of wealth and power in our society," said lawmaker Clive Lewis, who was among the anti-monarchy protesters.

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