Thousands of riot police on standby as more far-right protests planned

Starmer said he expected “substantive sentencing before the end of this week” for the rioters.

• EasternEye
• 07 August, 2024

By: EasternEye

SUSPECTED far-right rioters appeared in court on Tuesday as the government prepared 6,000 specialist police officers to handle England’s worst disorder in over a decade.

Far-right groups have planned demonstrations in more than 30 locations, with immigration lawyers and buildings hosting asylum seekers set to be the primary targets, according to posts on messaging app Telegram leaked to the British media.

Keir Starmer warned anyone involved would face “the full force of the law”, including those inciting violence online.

Nearly 400 people have been arrested, and 100 have been charged over the week-long disturbances sparked by online misinformation about the murder of three children in a mass stabbing. Police are preparing for further possible violence.

Starmer said he expected “substantive sentencing before the end of this week” for the rioters, after chairing his second emergency meeting in as many days late Tuesday.

“That should send a very powerful message to anybody involved, either directly or online,” the prime minister said in televised comments.

The unrest, Britain’s worst since the 2011 London riots, has led several countries to warn their citizens about the dangers of travelling to the United Kingdom.

Rioting in several cities has involved demonstrators throwing bricks and flares at police officers, burning cars, and attacking mosques and at least two hotels used as accommodation for asylum seekers.

Scores of alleged perpetrators appeared before judges on Tuesday, with some entering guilty pleas.

A 19-year-old man became the first person to receive a prison sentence related to the unrest when he was sentenced to two months on Tuesday, PA Media reported. Another man was convicted after admitting to assaulting a police officer outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham, northern England, on Sunday.

A 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty to committing violent disorder in Liverpool on Saturday after being identified from a TikTok video. A man in Leeds admitted posting threatening words on Facebook to stir up racial hatred.

The unrest began last Tuesday after three children were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.

False rumours initially spread on social media, claiming the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker. The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales. UK media reported that his parents are from Rwanda.

The government, only one month old, has vowed to take a tough line on the unrest. The National Police Chiefs’ Council said on Monday that 378 people had been arrested so far.

“99.9 per cent of people across the country want their streets to be safe and to feel safe in their communities, and we will take all necessary action to bring the disorder to an end,” Starmer said on Tuesday.

Justice minister Heidi Alexander told BBC Radio 4 that the government had freed up an extra 500 prison places and drafted in 6,000 specialist police officers to deal with the violence.

Police have blamed the disorder on people associated with the now-defunct English Defence League, a far-right Islamophobic organisation founded 15 years ago, whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism. The rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner “Enough is enough.”

Home secretary Yvette Cooper said there “will be a reckoning” for perpetrators, adding that social media put a “rocket booster” under the violence.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk escalated a dispute with the UK government on Tuesday by likening Britain to “the Soviet Union.” A spokesperson for Starmer had said there was “no justification” for Musk’s earlier comment that a British “civil war is inevitable.”

The latest violence on Monday night saw rioters hurl bricks and fireworks in Plymouth, southern England, injuring several police officers. Officers in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were attacked as rioters attempted to set fire to a shop owned by a foreign national. Police said a man in his 30s was seriously assaulted and that they are treating the incident as a racially motivated hate crime.

A group of men who gathered in Birmingham, central England, to counter a rumoured far-right demonstration forced a Sky News reporter off air by shouting: “Free Palestine.” She was then followed by a man in a balaclava holding a knife.

Kenya became the latest country to warn its citizens to be vigilant in Britain after Nigeria, Malaysia, Australia, and Indonesia issued alerts advising their nationals to stay away from the demonstrations.

(With inputs from AFP)