Starmer calls emergency Cobra meeting after riots

Unrest related to misinformation about a mass stabbing in Southport has affected multiple towns and cities, with anti-immigration demonstrators clashing with police.

• EasternEye
• 05 August, 2024

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By: EasternEye

KEIR Starmer has warned far-right protesters that they will “regret” their involvement in England’s worst rioting in 13 years. The disturbances, linked to the murder of three children earlier this week, have spread across the country.

Masked anti-immigration demonstrators smashed several windows at a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

Unrest related to misinformation about a mass stabbing last Monday in Southport has affected multiple towns and cities, with anti-immigration demonstrators clashing with police.

Downing Street confirmed an emergency response meeting will be held on Monday, following the arrest of more than 150 people during violent disorder in UK towns and cities over the weekend, according to the BBC.

Cobra meetings, named after Cabinet Office Briefing Room A on Whitehall, are emergency response committees involving ministers, civil servants, police, intelligence officers, and others relevant to the issue.

The violence poses a significant challenge for Starmer, who was elected only a month ago after Labour’s landslide victory over the Conservatives. “I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder. Whether directly or those inciting this action online and then fleeing,” Starmer said in a TV address.

He added there was “no justification” for what he described as “far-right thuggery,” promising to bring the perpetrators “to justice.”

Shops looted and burnt

Footage aired on the BBC showed rioters forcing their way into a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham and pushing a burning bin into the building. It is unclear whether asylum seekers were inside.

Ten officers were injured, but local police said none of the hotel staff or guests were harmed.

In Middlesbrough, hundreds of protesters faced riot police carrying shields. Some threw bricks, cans, and pots at officers.

Protesters seized a camera from an AFP crew and broke it, but the journalists were not injured.

The new disturbances follow the arrest of over 150 people since Saturday, due to skirmishes at far-right rallies in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Blackpool, Hull, and Belfast, as well as in Northern Ireland.

Rioters threw bricks, bottles, and flares at police, injuring several officers. They looted and burnt shops, while shouting anti-Islamic slurs as they clashed with counter-protesters.

The violence is the worst England has seen since the summer of 2011, when widespread rioting followed the police killing of a mixed-race man in north London.

Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders in Liverpool issued a joint appeal for calm.

“We’re now seeing this trouble flooding across major cities and towns,” said Tiffany Lynch of the Police Federation of England and Wales.

Late on Sunday, Staffordshire police reported that another hotel, known to shelter asylum seekers, was targeted near Birmingham.

“A large group of individuals” has been “throwing projectiles, smashing windows, starting fires, and targeting police” at the hotel in Tamworth, with one officer injured, according to a statement.

Riots first flared in Southport late Tuesday following Monday’s knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in the northwest coastal city, before spreading across England.

‘Wake-up call’

The unrest was fuelled by false rumours on social media about the background of 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana, who is accused of killing three children and injuring another 10 people.

Police have blamed the violence on supporters and affiliated organisations of the English Defence League, an anti-Islam group with links to football hooliganism.

Agitators have targeted at least two mosques, and the UK interior ministry announced new emergency security measures for Islamic places of worship.

The rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner “Enough is enough.”

Participants have waved English and British flags while chanting slogans such as “Stop the boats,” referring to irregular migrants crossing the Channel from France.

Anti-fascist demonstrators have held counter-rallies in many cities, including Leeds, where they chanted, “Nazi scum off our streets,” while the far-right protesters chanted, “You’re not English anymore.”

Not all gatherings have turned violent. A peaceful protest in Aldershot on Sunday saw participants holding placards reading “Stop the invasion” and “We’re not far right, we’re just right.”

“People are fed up with being told you should be ashamed if you’re white and working class, but I’m proud of being white and working class,” said 41-year-old Karina, who did not give her surname, in Nottingham on Saturday.

In last month’s election, the Reform UK party, led by Brexit supporter Nigel Farage, captured 14 percent of the vote, marking one of the largest shares for a far-right British party.

Carla Denyer, co-leader of the left-wing Green party, said the unrest should be “a wake-up call to all politicians who have actively promoted or given in” to anti-immigration rhetoric.

(With inputs from AFP)