PM Starmer to hold emergency meeting

UK leader Keir Starmer will hold an emergency response meeting on Monday after further far-right riots broke out across England over the weekend following the murder of three children last week.

The prime minister will chair a Cobra meeting, which will bring together ministers and the police to discuss how to quell the violence that first broke out in Southport, northwest England, on Tuesday, and has now seen hundreds of people arrested.

The town was the scene of last Monday’s tragedy in which three young girls were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack as they attended a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

Other riots have broken out in towns and cities across the country, with anti-immigration demonstrators facing off against police, and Muslim counter-protestors in some instances.

Starmer warned far-right protesters on Sunday that they would “regret” participating in England’s worst rioting in 13 years, while his interior minister Yvette Cooper told the BBC on Monday that “there will be a reckoning”.

Police have blamed the violence on supporters and associated organisations of the English Defence League, an anti-Islam organisation founded 15 years ago whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.

Some of the worst violence on Sunday broke out in Rotherham, northern England, where masked demonstrators smashed several windows at a hotel that has been used to house asylum seekers.

At least 10 officers were injured, including one who was knocked unconscious, said South Yorkshire Police.

There were also large scuffles in Bolton, northwest England, and Middlesbrough, northeast England, where rioters smashed windows of houses and cars, leading to 43 arrests.

Protesters there seized a camera from an AFP crew and broke it. The journalists were not injured.

Late on Sunday, Staffordshire police said another hotel known to have sheltered asylum seekers was targeted near Birmingham.

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

Shops looted, burnt

The violence is a major challenge for Starmer, elected only a month ago after leading Labour to a landslide win over the Conservatives.

“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder. Whether directly or those whipping up this action online, and then running away themselves,” Starmer said in a TV address on Sunday.

There was “no justification” for what he called “far-right thuggery”, promising to bring the perpetrators “to justice”.

The fresh disturbances came after police said more than 150 people had been arrested since Saturday following skirmishes at far-right rallies.

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

The violence is the worst England had 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 religious leaders in Liverpool issued a joint appeal for calm.

‘Wake-up call’

Authorities have said the initial violence was partly caused by false rumours on social media about the background of British-born 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana, who is accused of killing a six, seven, and nine-year-old, and injuring another 10 people.

Cooper said on Monday that social media had put a “rocket booster” under the violence.

Agitators have targeted at least two mosques, and Cooper on Sunday announced that the government was offering new emergency security to Islamic places of worship.

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

Participants waved English and British flags while chanting slogans like “Stop the boats” — a reference to irregular migrants crossing the Channel to Britain from France.

Anti-fascist demonstrators have held counter rallies in many cities.

Not all the gatherings have turned violent. A peaceful one in Aldershot, southern England, on Sunday, saw participants hold placards that read “Stop the invasion” and “We’re not far right, we’re just right”.

At last month’s election, the Reform UK party led by Brexit cheerleader Nigel Farage captured 14 per cent of the vote — one of the largest vote shares for a hard-right British party.

AFP