Britain is seeing the worst outbreak of civil disorder after clashes between anti-immigration demonstrators and counter protesters, following the murder of three young girls in northwest England.
Dozens of arrests were made after the scenes of disorder, with police warning that further violence is likely in the coming days.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said the police would have the government’s full support to take the strongest possible action. “Criminal violence and disorder have no place on Britain’s streets,” she said.
What is Happening in the UK?
Riots involving hundreds of anti-immigration protesters have erupted in towns and cities after false information spread rapidly on social media that the suspect in Monday’s knife attack at a children’s dance class in Southport was a radical Muslim migrant.
Police have said the suspect, Axel Rudakubana, 17, was born in Britain but protests by anti-immigration and anti-Muslim demonstrators have continued, descending into violence, arson and looting.
Violent disorder erupted in Liverpool, Bristol, Hull and Belfast — four cities located in different corners of the UK — with scuffles breaking out and bricks and bottles thrown as anti-immigration protesters faced groups opposed to racism, as per a report by Reuters.
Many police officers suffered injuries as they kept several rival protesters from clashing. In Liverpool, two officers were in hospital with suspected facial fractures while another was pushed from his motorbike and assaulted in the disorder involving some 750 protesters and a similar number of rival protesters.
Similar scenes were witnessed in the southwestern city of Bristol although anti-racist protesters outnumbered anti-immigration groups, with TV footage showing them facing off with police in riot gear.
In Belfast, some businesses reported damage to property while at least one was set on fire, according to police.
What is UK Govt Saying?
Prime Minister: Keir Starmer is facing his first big test since his election a month ago. Starmer has condemned the violence. He held a meeting of senior ministers on Saturday in which he said police had been given full support to tackle extremists who were attempting “to sow hate by intimidating communities”. He made clear that the right to freedom of expression and the violent scenes over recent days were “two very different things”.
Home Secretary: Yvette Cooper said those engaging in violent disorder “will pay the price”, telling broadcasters “criminal violence and disorder has no place on Britain’s streets”. Cooper said: “We’ve been clear to the police that they have our full backing in taking the strongest possible action against perpetrators, including making sure that there are more prosecutors, there are sufficient prison places and also that the courts stand ready because anyone who engages in this kind of disorder needs to be clear that they will pay the price.”
Police: Police have warned that further violence is likely in the coming days. “We know people will try and do this again and policing has been and will continue to be ready,” said Chief Constable BJ Harrington, who speaks on public order for the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Liverpool City region Mayor Steve Rotheram said to “call out mindless thuggery by people looking for an excuse to spew hatred and carry out acts of violence”. There were no reports of far-right marches in London. Separately, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched peacefully through the city to protest Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
Experts: Jacob Davey, the director of policy and research for counter-hate at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London, quoted The Guardian as saying it was “a perfect storm”, with a rising far right in the UK emboldened by recent mass demonstrations. The need for urgent political intervention was stressed by the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, Lord Walney, who told the Observer that new emergency powers may be needed. “The system isn’t set up to deal with this rolling rabble-rousing being fuelled by far-right actors,” he said. ““I think home office ministers may want to look urgently at a new emergency framework – perhaps temporary in nature – that enables police to use the full powers of arrest to prevent people gathering where there is clear intent to fuel violent disorder,” as quoted by The Guardian.
How Stabbing Took Place in UK
About two dozen children were attending a summer vacation workshop when an attacker with a knife burst in. Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, died from their injuries. Ten other people were injured, among whom five girls and two adults are in critical condition.
Far-right demonstrators have launched several violent protests, ostensibly in response to the attack, clashing with police outside a mosque in Southport.
A few hundred protesters hurled beer cans and flares near British PM Starmer’s residence in Downing Street in central London on Wednesday evening. More than 100 people were arrested for offenses including violent disorder and assault on an emergency worker, London’s Metropolitan Police force said.
Britain’s worst attack on children was in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot and killed 16 kindergartners and their teacher in a school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. The United Kingdom subsequently banned the private ownership of almost all handguns.
Who are the Groups Behind the Riots?
Several far-right groups have been at the riots or promoted them on social media. David Miles, a prominent member of Patriotic Alternative, a fascist group, shared photographs of himself in Southport, according to Hope Not Hate, a Britain-based advocacy group that researches extremist organisations.
Police have said the English Defence League had been involved in the riots. The English Defence League was a far-right street movement created in 2009 notorious for violent protests and anti-Islam and anti-immigration stance.
Joe Mulhall, Hope Not Hate’s director of research, called the movement “post organizational” in a 2018 analysis. Social media and other technologies, he wrote offer “new ways for it to engage in activism outside the confines of traditional, organizational structures”.