Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, promised “swift criminal sanctions” on Monday after an emergency meeting concerning the far-right riots that erupted throughout England last week due to the murder.
The prime minister met with ministers and chiefs of police, including Mark Rowley, the boss of Scotland Yard, to talk about ways to stop the violence that started on Tuesday in Southport, in the northwest of England.
Throughout the weekend, crowds brandishing bricks and flares battled with law enforcement, set fire to and looted stores, and shattered windows of cars and homes, leaving multiple police officers injured and numerous others taken into custody.
The government will “ramp up criminal justice” to make sure that “sanctions are swift” as part of a “number of actions” that will follow Monday’s meeting, Starmer told the reporters.
In addition, he declared that local authorities would have backing from a “standing army” of highly skilled police personnel in the event that more rioting broke out.
“I want to make sure that this disorder is stopped,” he continued.
“This is pure violence, regardless of the apparent motivation; we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” Starmer declared.
“Everyone found to have participated will face the full weight of the law.”
Days after a knife assault at a dance class with a Taylor Swift theme left three young girls dead and five more seriously injured, there were clashes in Southport.
At first, false reports on social media claimed that the assailant was a Muslim seeking refuge. However, authorities later revealed that the suspect, a 17-year-old born in Wales, was actually the son of Rwandan parents, according to UK media.
That hasn’t stopped attacks on mosques, though.
Since then, hundreds of people have been arrested by police in towns and cities around the country as rioters and anti-immigration protestors have clashed with law enforcement and counter-protesters, including Muslim organizations.
Online alert
The interior minister, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC on Monday that “there will be a reckoning” after the prime minister threatened rioters on Sunday that they would “regret” taking part in the biggest disturbance to hit England in 13 years.
Starmer emphasized that “criminal law applies online as well as offline,” while Cooper added that social media provided a “rocket booster” to the violence.
Authorities have attributed the violence on members of the English Defence League, a 15-year-old anti-Islamic group whose adherents have been connected to football hooliganism.
A hotel that houses asylum seekers was the scene of some of the worst events on Sunday, with masked rioters smashing many windows. The incident happened in Rotherham, in northern England.
As they engaged in combat with about 500 demonstrators who held “far-right and anti-immigration views,” at least 12 policemen were hurt, one of whom was rendered unconscious, Lindsey Butterfield of South Yorkshire Police told the media on Monday.
In Bolton, northwest England, and Middlesbrough, northeast England, there were also significant altercations in which crowds broke windows of homes and vehicles, resulting in 43 arrests.
There, demonstrators took an AFP crew’s camera and destroyed it. There were no injuries to the journalists.
Staffordshire police stated that another hotel close to Birmingham that was known to have provided shelter for asylum seekers was targeted late on Sunday.
Plundering
For Starmer, who was elected just one month ago after guiding Labour to a resounding victory against the Conservatives, the violence poses a serious challenge.
All parties’ members of parliament, including former Conservative interior minister Priti Patel, Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, have urged Starmer to summon back parliament from its summer break.
Over 150 people were reportedly arrested over the weekend, according to the police.
While protestors yelled anti-Islamic epithets and engaged in physical altercations with counter-protesters, the former set fire to stores and hurled bricks, bottles, and flares at law enforcement, wounding multiple officers.
The level of violence in England has not been this high since rioting broke out in 2011 in response to the police killing of a man of mixed ethnicity in north London.
Authorities claim that the initial violence was partially sparked by unfounded rumors regarding defendant Axel Rudakubana, who is charged with the murders of three children, ages six, seven, and nine, as well as the injuries of ten more.
Following at least two mosques being targeted by agitators, the government is now providing additional emergency security for Islamic houses of worship.
“Enough is enough” is the banner used by far-right social media channels to promote the events.
While yelling “Stop the boats,” a reference to undocumented migrants who cross the Channel from France to Britain, participants raised both English and British flags.
In the meantime, anti-fascist protestors have staged counter-protests in other places.
One of the highest vote shares for a hard-right British party, the Reform UK party, led by Brexit enthusiast Farage, received 14% of the vote in last month’s election.
Police point the finger at internet misinformation
Police have stated that high-profile individuals’ dissemination of internet misinformation is what is causing the violence.
Media outlets have accused Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who went by Tommy Robinson when he led the now-defunct English Defence League, of disseminating false information to his 875,000 followers on X.
Yaxley-Lennon declared, “They are lying to you all.” trying to incite the country against me. Because you are my voice, I need you.
The owner of X, Elon Musk, added his voice as well. He stated, “Civil war is inevitable,” in response to a post on X that attributed the chaos in Britain on open borders and huge migration.
According to Starmer’s spokeswoman, Musk’s remark had “no justification.”
The British Bangladeshi community, according to 33-year-old lawyer MA Gani in Whitechapel, East London, is “living in fear.”
“These far-right groups are anti-immigrant and we’ve never seen them this active,” he remarked.
“I’m hoping the government of the United Kingdom will act to defuse the situation.”
London commuters said that demonstrators planned on using violence.
The curator Carmen Holdsworth-Delgado, 42, stated, “I actually think the people rioting are probably puppets of people who want to stir up trouble.”
Minister of the interior Cooper told media outlets that immigration concerns could not be used as an excuse for violence, and that the government will work with social media firms to stop the dissemination of false information online.
She remarked, “Reasonable people do not pick up bricks and throw them at the police. They do not share all those sorts of views and concerns.”
