UK
Home Office knew migrants at hotel targeted in riots were at risk from far-Right last year
Neil Johnston
Mon, August 5, 2024
Violence flared outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The Home Office knew migrants at a South Yorkshire hotel attacked in Southport-linked riots were at risk of being targeted by the far-Right more than a year ago.
The department said last year that it would review the use of the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, as accommodation for asylum seekers following trouble in which two people were arrested last year.
However, when a mob of far-Right demonstrators turned up outside the hotel over the weekend, it is believe that about 200 migrants were still being housed there despite the concerns that had been raised.
Dozens of masked and hooded thugs, many carrying England or Union flags, began throwing missiles at police. With officers quickly outnumbered, the mob began hurling planks of wood and bricks at police, who used riot shields to protect themselves.
Hotel staff and residents cowered as the mob chanted “Get them out”, “We want our country back” and “Yorkshire”.
After smashing several ground-floor windows, the rioters then attempted to set the hotel on fire, torching bins and then using them to blockade the exits.
A rubbish bin is hurled onto fire outside the hotel - Reuters
At least 10 officers were injured, including one who was knocked unconscious, South Yorkshire Police confirmed, saying one person had already been arrested and others involved should “expect us to be at their doors very soon”.
Police on horseback attempted to disperse the crowd, but a large number made their way to the hotel entrance and got inside after windows were smashed.
Riot police moved in to clear the burning debris, but found themselves under attack from a group throwing rocks and other missiles.
Asylum seekers inside said they were terrified and feared for their lives, after having come to the UK because they thought it was a “safe country”.
One man said: “We were told to stay in our rooms, the staff locked the hotel. We then heard them breaking in. We could hear the breaking of mirrors, glass and doors. It was terrible. We only knew the fire had started when the fire alarms went off. It was so terrible for us, and this is the first experience we’ve had like this.”
The disorder continued well into Sunday night, with rioters launching fireworks at officers and the hotel and lighting a bonfire in the middle of the road.
Rioters had picked the hotel because it was known that asylum seekers were staying there. Hundreds of anti-immigration and counter-demonstrators also gathered outside.
After a demonstration in February last year, for which South Yorkshire Police had mounted a large-scale operation, Robert Jenrick, then the immigration minister, said a review of the use of the accommodation was due later in the year.
At the time, John Healey, the local Labour MP who is now the Defence Secretary, said: “I will make a formal submission to Robert Jenrick as part of this review, when I will again set out our local concerns about Manvers being utterly unsuited for such accommodation and our wish to see our hotel being released back for ordinary paying customers.”
Andy Gregory and Millie Cooke
Mon, August 5, 2024
Downing Street has condemned Elon Musk for his claim that “civil war is inevitable” in Britain, saying there is “no justification for comments like that”.
The spokesperson added: “We’re talking about a minority of thugs that do not speak for Britain.”
Elon Musk said he “fully” endorses Donald Trump after the Republican presidential candidate was rushed bleeding from the stage of a rally in Pennsylvania (Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images)
Misinformation on Mr Musk’s social media platform X has been blamed for helping to fuel racist far-right riots and attacks.
Following lies about the identity of the suspect in the Southport knife attack, disorder continued across the weekend as racist mobs clashed with police in Hull, Halifax, Liverpool, London, Southport and Rotherham, and started fires at hotels housing asylum-seekers in Manvers and Tamworth.
Follow our live blog for the latest updates
A car burns in Middlesbrough, during an anti-immigration protest (Owen Humphreys/PA)
With posts featuring misinformation on X garnering millions of interactions, Mr Musk - who bought the platform in 2022 for £38bn – responded to a post on Sunday sharing footage of the violence, which claimed disorder is the “effects of mass migration and open borders”.
“Civil war is inevitable,” the Tesla and SpaceX founder replied. It marks the sixth time since October that Musk has claimed civil war is brewing in Europe.
On Monday, Downing Street reiterated that social media companies have “can and should be doing more” to counter misleading or dangerous material hosted on their platforms, adding that they have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their users.
Mr Musk drew criticism from across the political spectrum for his remarks, with Tim Montgomerie, editor of the Conservative Home website, saying: “Extraordinarily irresponsible from Elon Musk. We need leaders to deescalate, not raise fears.”
Michael Stephens, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said: “Proof if ever it was needed that making electric cars and space rockets does not equal political understanding. Civil War is absolutely not inevitable. The UK is a small space filled with a lot of people. We all have to make it work.”
The Thick of It writer Armando Iannucci, said: “Tomorrow morning you’ll see the people who live here tidy these streets up. Small gangs of thugs do not a mass movement make. You’ve been taken in by your own platform, which amplifies noise at the expense of facts.”
(Getty Images)
But such inflammatory claims have been echoed by other public figures, with actor-turned right-wing activist Laurence Fox seeking to cast prime minister Keir Starmer as a “traitor” on the side of “immigrant barbarians”, adding in an X post “liked” nearly 60,000 times: “Fine. Then it’s war.”
As calls emerged for greater regulation of social media, Professor Marc Owen Jones, a disinformation researcher at Doha’s Hamid bin Khalifa University, said: “X has been weaponised to spread rumours and hate speech, particularly targeting minorities, people of a Muslim background, to inflame tensions.”
“Unfortunately social media companies make it all too easy for potential bad actors to set up anonymous accounts and spread rumours,” Prof Jones told BBC News.
A police officer walks past a fire during clashes between police and rioters in Rotherham (Danny Lawson/PA)
“The idea with a disinformation campaign, if you have someone acting in bad faith, they will spread falsehoods and then other people in good faith, regular Joe, might pick it up because they believe that person to be credible, and then spread it. And that’s what we’re seeing in Southport,” he said.
Since buying Twitter in 2022 in and rebranding it as X, Musk has allowed many previously banned figures back onto the platform, including Tommy Robinson, with whom Mr Musk interacted on X as the former EDL leader was accused of inflaming tensions in the UK from a hotel in Cyprus.
Hours earlier, Sir Keir had issued a message to social media firms during a press conference in Downing Street, saying: “Violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a crime, it’s happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere.”
Painting himself as a champion of free speech, as many users report increased hateful and extreme content on X, Musk has also endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming US elections and has spoken about wanting to destroy the “woke mind virus”.
The Independent has contacted Mr Musk for comment.
Elon Musk's UK 'civil war' post criticised by No 10
BBC
Mon, August 5, 2024
A police car was set on fire amid protests in Sunderland on Saturday [Getty Images]
Downing Street has criticised comments by Elon Musk, who said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that "civil war is inevitable" following unrest in the UK.
Mr Musk made the remarks in response to a video showing people aiming fireworks at police.
The prime minister's spokesperson said there was "no justification" for Mr Musk's comments, adding there was more that social media companies "can and should be doing".
It comes after the Prime Minister told an emergency meeting about the violent disorder in UK cities and towns that people who incite violence online will be prosecuted.
"The law applies online, so if you're inciting violence, it doesn't matter whether it's online or offline", Sir Keir Starmer said.
And his spokesperson said social media firms "have a responsibility" to ensure criminal activity - including from those outside the UK - is not being shared online.
"Clearly we have seen bot activity online, much of which may well be amplified with the involvement of state actors amplifying some of the disinformation and misinformation that we've seen," they said.
But they would not say which countries the government believes are behind the posts.
Earlier the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said social media firms needed to take action over "shocking misinformation", online agitators and the "organisation of violence".
She told the Today programme social media firms are not acting quickly enough to remove "criminal material" after days of protests in UK towns and cities.
The BBC has approached X, Meta, TikTok and Snap for comment.
Protestors clashed with police in towns and cities across the UK over the weekend [Getty Images]
The home secretary said social media companies need to "take responsibility" over online posts encouraging criminality.
"There's been some shocking misinformation that has escalated some of this, but then there's also been the deliberate organisation of violence as well," she said.
"You can't just have the armchair thuggery of the people being able to incite and organise violence and also not face consequences for this."
Offences concerning incitement under UK law predate social media, and are listed under the Public Order Act 1986.
This may include provoking violence and harassment, as well as engaging in rioting.
Meanwhile the Online Safety Act, which became law in 2023 but has not yet fully come into effect, will require social media firms to "take robust action against illegal content and activity", including "racially or religiously aggravated" offences as well as inciting violence.
The criminal offences introduced by the act will cover sending "threatening communications" online, and sharing "false information intended to cause non-trivial harm".
Online agitators
Ms Cooper said social media firms are failing "recognise the impact" of online agitators, with some online posts about the unrest including "things which are clearly already criminal".
“There are crimes that have been committed on social media in inflaming this and encouraging and promoting violence," she said.
"There are areas where the social media companies do have clear requirements at the moment to remove criminal material and should be doing so, but sometimes take too long to do so."
Ms Cooper said there are other areas where firms have "made commitments around their terms and conditions that are supposed to be enforced" - but posts are not being removed.
She said the government was “pursuing this” with social media companies this week.
And when asked specifically about posts made by English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson - real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - Ms Cooper said she had seen videos posted by "a series of agitators", and would not comment on "individual pieces of material that may well be subject to a police investigation or a criminal investigation".
Social media involvement
Anne Craanen, Senior Research and Policy Manager on Extremism at the ISD think-tank, said the relationship between online activity and offline violence is "very hard to assess" - but amid recent unrest "the relationship is abundantly clear".
"Platforms have developed crisis response protocols for responding to terrorist and mass-casualty events but continue to struggle with violent incidents which may lead to disinformation that may inspire further violence," she said.
"Platforms, in the case of Southport, did not enforce their own Terms of Service adequately or in a timely fashion."
The prime minister recently criticised the role social media has played in the unrest, telling firms last week - and "those who run them" - that "violent disorder clearly whipped up online" is a crime.
Just three days after the prime minister's comments, Mr Musk made his post calling civil war in the UK "inevitable".
Mr Musk's comments have drawn ire from some online, with satirist Armando Iannucci saying the billionaire had been "taken in by your own platform, which amplifies noise at the expense of facts".
Meanwhile Sunder Katwala, director of think tank British Future, said the post was "spreading a narrative that is crucial to socialising people with fairly extreme view towards condoning violence to protect their group".
He said there needs to be "strong responses from government, Ofcom, and parliament" to the comments.
An Ofcom spokesperson told the BBC it is "moving quickly" to implement the Online Safety Act, so it can be enforced "as soon as possible".
"When it comes fully into force, tech firms will have to assess the risk of illegal content on their platforms, take steps to stop it appearing and act quickly to remove it when they become aware of it," they said.
"We expect the illegal harms duties to come into force from around the end of the year... and the additional duties on the largest services in 2026."
Hotel workers' 'absolute terror' at mob violence
Far-Right and Muslims clash in fresh riots
Nick Gutteridge
Sun, August 4, 2024
Asian men join the disturbance in Bolton on Sunday - Phil Taylor / SWN
Violent clashes broke out between far-Right rioters and Muslim counter-protesters on Sunday in a sixth day of unrest on Britain’s streets.
The disorder that has spread since the Southport killings showed no sign of abating over the weekend amid escalating community tensions.
In Rotherham, a hotel used to house asylum seekers was set ablaze, and another in Tamworth was targeted by anti-immigration protesters.
In Bolton, Muslim groups shouting “Allahu Akbar” clashed with far-Right rioters.
A mob in Middlesbrough shouted “smash the p—s” and “there ain’t no black in the Union Jack” while targeting the homes of migrants, while footage on social media from elsewhere in the city appeared to show groups of Asian men attacking white men.
In an emergency address from Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer warned the rioters would regret taking part and vowed to do “whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice as quickly as possible”.
Police stand guard against counter-protesters - Belinda Jiao/Reuters
He said: “The police will be making arrests. Individuals will be held on remand. Charges will follow. And convictions will follow.
“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder. Whether directly or those whipping up this action online, and then running away themselves.”
He added: “This is not protest. I won’t shy away from calling this what it is – far-Right thuggery.”
The Prime Minister was warned not to be “selective” in his response to the groups involved in the disorder.
Robert Jenrick, a frontrunner to become the next Tory leader, said the Prime Minister must not show any “squeamishness or selectivity” in tackling all those responsible.
He said the streets should be flooded with tens of thousands of police, with all leave cancelled and officers diverted from unaffected areas to riot hotspots.
“The ringleaders should be arrested, swiftly prosecuted and jailed for the longest possible time,” the former immigration minister told The Telegraph.
“Groups that gather in town or city centres that become violent must be immediately dispersed, with violent thugs arrested.
“If force is needed to achieve this, it should be used. There must be no squeamishness or selectivity whatsoever to robust law enforcement.”
‘Law breaking is not the answer’
Nadhim Zahawi, the former Chancellor, also warned that there must be zero tolerance for anyone taking part in riots, including those “taking matters into their own hands”.
He said: “There needs to be a clear, consistent message for all those rioting, even if they think they are ‘taking matters into their own hands’; law breaking is not the answer and there must be a zero tolerance response.
“The Government needs to realise that there is legitimate frustration and pain felt in communities across the country, with recent murders and other violence becoming emblematic of people feeling that their society is becoming unrecognisable. But the violence must be punished.
“Similarly, the Government needs to say to those thugs who hijack Islam that it will not be tolerant of intolerance. If you settle in Britain like I did, you respect its values and traditions, integrate and be proud of this country, otherwise you must go somewhere else.”
Protests broke out in the wake of the Southport killings after false information was spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker.
On Sunday, around 700 rioters descended on the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, which has previously been used to house asylum seekers.
After smashing several ground floor windows, the attackers then attempted to set the hotel on fire, torching bins and then using them to blockade the exits.
Mosques have been targeted on previous days of the unrest and the Home Office on Sunday announced that extra police and security forces will be deployed to protect mosques after they were targeted by far-Right rioters.
Amid escalating community tensions, in Bolton there were scuffles on the town’s streets between anti-immigration protesters and Muslim counter demonstrators.
By early afternoon the counter-protesters, who were mostly Asian and many in Muslim dress, outnumbered the anti-immigration protest by two to one.
Footage on social media also appeared to show groups of Asian men attacking white males in Middlesbrough.
The disorder that has spread since the Southport killings showed no sign of abating over the weekend amid escalating community tensions.
In Rotherham, a hotel used to house asylum seekers was set ablaze, and another in Tamworth was targeted by anti-immigration protesters.
In Bolton, Muslim groups shouting “Allahu Akbar” clashed with far-Right rioters.
A mob in Middlesbrough shouted “smash the p—s” and “there ain’t no black in the Union Jack” while targeting the homes of migrants, while footage on social media from elsewhere in the city appeared to show groups of Asian men attacking white men.
In an emergency address from Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer warned the rioters would regret taking part and vowed to do “whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice as quickly as possible”.
Police stand guard against counter-protesters - Belinda Jiao/Reuters
He said: “The police will be making arrests. Individuals will be held on remand. Charges will follow. And convictions will follow.
“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder. Whether directly or those whipping up this action online, and then running away themselves.”
He added: “This is not protest. I won’t shy away from calling this what it is – far-Right thuggery.”
The Prime Minister was warned not to be “selective” in his response to the groups involved in the disorder.
Robert Jenrick, a frontrunner to become the next Tory leader, said the Prime Minister must not show any “squeamishness or selectivity” in tackling all those responsible.
He said the streets should be flooded with tens of thousands of police, with all leave cancelled and officers diverted from unaffected areas to riot hotspots.
“The ringleaders should be arrested, swiftly prosecuted and jailed for the longest possible time,” the former immigration minister told The Telegraph.
“Groups that gather in town or city centres that become violent must be immediately dispersed, with violent thugs arrested.
“If force is needed to achieve this, it should be used. There must be no squeamishness or selectivity whatsoever to robust law enforcement.”
‘Law breaking is not the answer’
Nadhim Zahawi, the former Chancellor, also warned that there must be zero tolerance for anyone taking part in riots, including those “taking matters into their own hands”.
He said: “There needs to be a clear, consistent message for all those rioting, even if they think they are ‘taking matters into their own hands’; law breaking is not the answer and there must be a zero tolerance response.
“The Government needs to realise that there is legitimate frustration and pain felt in communities across the country, with recent murders and other violence becoming emblematic of people feeling that their society is becoming unrecognisable. But the violence must be punished.
“Similarly, the Government needs to say to those thugs who hijack Islam that it will not be tolerant of intolerance. If you settle in Britain like I did, you respect its values and traditions, integrate and be proud of this country, otherwise you must go somewhere else.”
Protests broke out in the wake of the Southport killings after false information was spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker.
On Sunday, around 700 rioters descended on the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, which has previously been used to house asylum seekers.
After smashing several ground floor windows, the attackers then attempted to set the hotel on fire, torching bins and then using them to blockade the exits.
Mosques have been targeted on previous days of the unrest and the Home Office on Sunday announced that extra police and security forces will be deployed to protect mosques after they were targeted by far-Right rioters.
Amid escalating community tensions, in Bolton there were scuffles on the town’s streets between anti-immigration protesters and Muslim counter demonstrators.
By early afternoon the counter-protesters, who were mostly Asian and many in Muslim dress, outnumbered the anti-immigration protest by two to one.
Footage on social media also appeared to show groups of Asian men attacking white males in Middlesbrough.
Counter-protesters outnumbered the anti-immigration protest by two to one - Belinda Jiao
A reporter for Channel 4 News said groups of Asian and white men were on the streets of the town “looking for trouble”.
Tommy Robinson, who is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by a judge after failing to turn up to court last Monday, was reported to be stoking the riots through his social media posts while on holiday in Cyprus. He denies encouraging or orchestrating violence.
Sir Keir is under increasing pressure to bring the violence under control.
In his statement on Sunday, he opened the door to tougher prison sentences for rioters and announced suspects will be held on remand and locked up immediately after being charged, mirroring action to tackle the 2011 riots when he was Director of Public Prosecutions.
The Prime Minister will lead a meeting of the Government’s emergency Cobra committee on Monday alongside Cabinet ministers and senior police figures.
However doubts have been raised over whether there are enough jail places available for Sir Keir to mount a 2011-style response to the unrest.
Labour inherited a system that is running at almost full capacity, with only around 700 spaces available in male prisons around the country.
Around 150 arrests have been made across England since Saturday evening, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said, with that number expected to rise.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, on Sunday night warned rioters they would face a “reckoning” and that police have the Government’s backing to take the “strongest possible action”.
Writing in The Times, she said: “Make no mistake, there will be a reckoning for the individuals who took part in this violence, those who whipped them up on social media and in online chat forums and those who have felt emboldened by this moment to stir up racial hatred.”
Cassia Rowland, a researcher at the Institute for Government, said locking up all the rioters was “not an option” unless more prisoners are released.
She said: “The situation in prisons is desperate. We simply don’t have the prison spaces available for mass arrests like we saw in 2011.”
The Government has announced that, as of Sept 10, thousands of prisoners will be freed when they have served 40pc of their sentence to free up cells.
But that date has been written into law, meaning the scheme could only be brought forward if Parliament were recalled from recess to amend the legislation.
Government sources insisted that internal modelling of prisoner numbers showed there would be enough space to lock up all the rioters.
No 10 was forced to scotch rumours that Sir Keir was planning to go on holiday on Monday insisting he would be working at Downing Street all week.
The Prime Minister is now facing demands to recall Parliament so that MPs can debate his response, as Lord Cameron did at the same point during the 2011 unrest.
But that date has been written into law, meaning the scheme could only be brought forward if Parliament were recalled from recess to amend the legislation.
Government sources insisted that internal modelling of prisoner numbers showed there would be enough space to lock up all the rioters.
No 10 was forced to scotch rumours that Sir Keir was planning to go on holiday on Monday insisting he would be working at Downing Street all week.
The Prime Minister is now facing demands to recall Parliament so that MPs can debate his response, as Lord Cameron did at the same point during the 2011 unrest.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader, added that Sir Keir “needs to bring people back to explain what he’s doing”.
Meanwhile officials were forced to dampen down speculation they could call the Army in if police forces are stretched to breaking point in the coming days.
Humza Yousaf, a former Scottish first minister, and Tobias Ellwood, an ex-Armed Forces minister, were among those urging Sir Keir to use the military.
Mr Yousaf warned the UK was experiencing “far-Right race riots” which amounted to “pogroms against the Muslim community, against people of colour”.
Neil Basu, a former assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, said the riots had made him feel afraid to be black for the first time in decades.
He said: “I was born a few weeks before Enoch Powell made a speech that changed my parents’ lives. I am the son of immigrants and I am not a white person.
“I spent 30 years as a police officer feeling pretty secure in my ability to handle myself, I don’t feel like that this week and that is a terrible thing for a man in his 57th year to say.
“But I remember growing up in the 1970s, I watched the National Front march down streets, and this feels very much like that.”
Starmer Calls Emergency Meeting After Riots Flare Across UK
Andrew Atkinson, Alex Wickham and Lucca de Paoli
Mon, August 5, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Keir Starmer called an emergency security meeting in a bid to quell anti-immigrant protests that rocked communities across the UK and threatened to plunge his month-old government into a polarizing cultural debate.
Violence erupted in towns and cities including Rotherham, Blackpool and Bristol over the weekend in the first major test for the new Labour government. The disorder has been fueled by an online misinformation campaign since an attack a week ago left three young girls dead in Southport, northwest England. Far-right activists falsely claimed the suspect was a Muslim migrant to stoke anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiment.
In Rotherham, South Yorkshire, protesters on Sunday attacked a hotel they believed was housing asylum seekers and started a fire, injuring around a dozen police officers. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC radio on Monday that hundreds of arrests have been made in England’s worst rioting in over a decade.
“We have seen truly appalling criminal violence and thuggery in some of our cities and towns; it is a total disgrace,” Cooper said. “There has to be a reckoning; they have to pay the price for their crimes”
Speaking from Downing Street on Sunday, Starmer blamed the far-right for the violence and said those who took part will face “the full force of the law.” On Monday, he is due to hold an emergency Cobra meeting with senior ministers and police chiefs, Cooper said.
The prime minister is preparing emergency court sittings, getting prosecutors to work longer hours and weekends to process cases, and the redeployment of police if necessary.
Authorities have yet to point the finger at specific named groups, and there is no apparent unified structure to those behind the violence. Disparate groups of far-right activists appear to have mobilized online, including using Twitter and Telegram to call for protests in towns and cities across the country. Far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has used Twitter posts to stoke tensions, while Reform UK Party Leader Nigel Farage has questioned whether police withheld the truth in the Southport attack.
Asked specifically about Robinson, Cooper declined to comment on individual cases, but said “if there is criminal provocation online, that needs to be addressed.”
“There is definitely criminal material online, and that needs to be pursued,” Cooper said. “You can’t just have the armchair thuggery of people being able to incite and organize violence and also not face consequences for this. There does also need to be action by the social media companies.”
The violence is the worst in England since the summer of 2011, when rioting raged for five days following the police killing of a Black man in north London. That led to the prosecution of thousands of people and lengthy prison sentences. Starmer was the director of public prosecutions at the time and is expected to take a similarly tough approach to the latest unrest, according to the official.
Cooper announced additional measures to protect the mosques and pledged “full backing” for the police in dealing with the unrest.
Tensions have been rising since the stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in Southport, near Liverpool, on July 29. Police have said the suspect, Axel Rudakubana, 17, was born in Britain in an attempt to counter false claims spread on social media that he was a Muslim migrant.
Around 300 people were involved in disturbances in the Walton area of Liverpool on Saturday night, according to Merseyside Police. The force, also responsible for Southport, said that a local convenience store was set on fire and that a library was damaged, while firefighters who attended to the scene had a missile thrown at their vehicle.
In Hull, demonstrators gathered outside a hotel that houses asylum seekers, a number of windows were smashed and bottles thrown. In videos uploaded to social media many of the protesters can be heard chanting “stop the boats,” a reference to crossings made from the European continent by migrants attempting to get to Britain.
Many police forces across the country have issued so-called dispersal orders to try to break up and deter rioters. There have also been disturbances in Leicester, Stoke-on Trent, Nottingham, Manchester, Middlesbrough and Sunderland, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland.
“We will do whatever it takes to make sure that people can get through the court system,” Diana Johnson, the policing minister, said Sunday in an interview on Sky News. Courts could sit through the night to deal with the large number of people arrested if necessary, she added.
For the UK’s strained justice system, haste could prove difficult.
Since 2010, when the Conservatives took office, funding cuts have left much of the court system struggling to process even their regular workload. More than half of magistrate courts, which deal with lower-level offenses, closed during the Tories’ 14 years in power. Those courts are now working with a backlog of around 387,000 cases as of April this year, a figure that has surged since the pandemic.
The unrest comes just days after the House of Commons rose for the long summer recess. Priti Patel, a former home secretary who is now vying to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader, has called for Parliament to be recalled.
--With assistance from Alex Morales
Bloomberg Businessweek
Massive Attack call out the UK government and media amid violent, racist far-right riots across Britain
Paul Brannigan
Sun, August 4, 2024
Credit: Marco Prosch/Getty Images
Massive Attack have shared a powerful statement calling out successive UK governments, the current Labour administration and the UK media for “years of state sponsored Islamophobia and racism“ under-pinning the violent far-right riots currently sweeping across Britain.
The past week has seen riots and on-going racist violence in Southport, Sunderland, London, Belfast, Rotherham, Hull, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Bolton and a number of other towns and cities.
147 arrests have been made over the weekend as violence escalated for a sixth day across Britain in the wake of the murder of three young girls in Southport last week.
In the aftermath of the horrifying attack upon children attending a school holidays Taylor Swift-themed dance class, false rumours were spread online that the individual responsible was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK in 2023 illegally by boat.
The outrage sparked by these untrue claims led Judge Andrew Menary KC to take the unusual decision to name the Cardiff-born teenager arrested and charged with the killings: Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, from Banks in Lancashire, is now facing three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. Despite these facts contradicting the false far-right narrative, there have been numerous anti-immigration demonstrations across the UK, many escalating into violent disorder, with attacks on mosques, Muslim-owned businesses, the police and, today in Rotherham, Yorkshire, a sustained assault upon a Holiday Inn hotel where asylum seekers are believed to be housed.
Today, August 4, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed that those involved in the violence will be brought to justice, stating, “People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we've seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric... I won't shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery.“
This same afternoon, Massive Attack shared a statement from the Runnymede Trust, the UK's leading race equality think tank. It reads: “This violent racism has long been simmering under the surface. What is happening is the direct result of years of normalised racism and Islamophobia, enabled by politicians and the British media.
“As far-right mobs threaten mosques, intimidate and harass people, and throw Nazi salutes, we offer our utmost solidarity to people of colour, and Muslim communities in particular.
“Even in their responses to this violence, our Prime Minister and Home Secretary fail to centre Muslim people, or call out racism for what it is,“ the statement continues. “What we are seeing unfold is more than 'thuggery', it is violent racism. This is an inevitable outcome of years of state sponsored Islamophobia and racism, where Muslims, people of colour and migrants are scapegoated as a distraction from decades of economic hardship and political failings.
The statement concludes: “We demand political leadership that recognises that challenging the far right is not simply a question of tackling online misinformation, or increased police surveillance. Instead, we urgently need our leaders to challenge the conditions that embolden the far right. These scenes should be unimaginable in 2024.”
More protests are expected across the UK in the coming week.
Sun, August 4, 2024
Credit: Marco Prosch/Getty Images
Massive Attack have shared a powerful statement calling out successive UK governments, the current Labour administration and the UK media for “years of state sponsored Islamophobia and racism“ under-pinning the violent far-right riots currently sweeping across Britain.
The past week has seen riots and on-going racist violence in Southport, Sunderland, London, Belfast, Rotherham, Hull, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Bolton and a number of other towns and cities.
147 arrests have been made over the weekend as violence escalated for a sixth day across Britain in the wake of the murder of three young girls in Southport last week.
In the aftermath of the horrifying attack upon children attending a school holidays Taylor Swift-themed dance class, false rumours were spread online that the individual responsible was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK in 2023 illegally by boat.
The outrage sparked by these untrue claims led Judge Andrew Menary KC to take the unusual decision to name the Cardiff-born teenager arrested and charged with the killings: Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, from Banks in Lancashire, is now facing three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. Despite these facts contradicting the false far-right narrative, there have been numerous anti-immigration demonstrations across the UK, many escalating into violent disorder, with attacks on mosques, Muslim-owned businesses, the police and, today in Rotherham, Yorkshire, a sustained assault upon a Holiday Inn hotel where asylum seekers are believed to be housed.
Today, August 4, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed that those involved in the violence will be brought to justice, stating, “People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we've seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric... I won't shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery.“
This same afternoon, Massive Attack shared a statement from the Runnymede Trust, the UK's leading race equality think tank. It reads: “This violent racism has long been simmering under the surface. What is happening is the direct result of years of normalised racism and Islamophobia, enabled by politicians and the British media.
“As far-right mobs threaten mosques, intimidate and harass people, and throw Nazi salutes, we offer our utmost solidarity to people of colour, and Muslim communities in particular.
“Even in their responses to this violence, our Prime Minister and Home Secretary fail to centre Muslim people, or call out racism for what it is,“ the statement continues. “What we are seeing unfold is more than 'thuggery', it is violent racism. This is an inevitable outcome of years of state sponsored Islamophobia and racism, where Muslims, people of colour and migrants are scapegoated as a distraction from decades of economic hardship and political failings.
The statement concludes: “We demand political leadership that recognises that challenging the far right is not simply a question of tackling online misinformation, or increased police surveillance. Instead, we urgently need our leaders to challenge the conditions that embolden the far right. These scenes should be unimaginable in 2024.”
More protests are expected across the UK in the coming week.
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