UK Braces for More Far-Right Riots Fueled by Misinformation
(Bloomberg) -- UK police were set to deploy thousands of officers across Britain as far-right groups planned dozens of demonstrations in what was shaping up to be a crucial test of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s efforts to quell a recent wave of anti-immigrant unrest.
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Law enforcement authorities were bracing for at least 30 events as online agitators urged supporters to converge on sites associated with migrants. Police warned they were ready to arrest hundreds if they saw a repeat of last weekend’s violence, when hotels housing asylum-seekers were surrounded and, in two cases, set on fire.
“We’re doing everything we can to ensure that where a police response is needed it’s in place,” Starmer said after an emergency security meeting with senior ministers and police chiefs late Tuesday, the second in as many days.
The recent disorder has been fueled by online misinformation since an attack just over a week ago left three young girls dead in Southport, northwest England. Far-right activists falsely claimed the suspect was a Muslim asylum-seeker, stoking anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiment.
The episode represents a high-stakes test of Starmer’s leadership, barely a month after his Labour Party took over from a Conservative government riven by disputes over how to handle a record rise in immigration. The premier has drawn on his experience as the nation’s top prosecutor during a wave rioting in 2011, promising swift prosecutions of anyone caught participating in violence.
Starmer said this week authorities had agreed to mobilize a “standing army” of officers to deal with the anti-migrant and anti-Muslim disorder. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Tuesday that police would get government support for overtime pay and “any other resources they need.”
Almost 380 people involved in violent disorder have been arrested and around 100 have been charged, her office said Tuesday. The Crown Prosecution Service earlier said it was “working around the clock” to “charge people as quickly as possible and ensure justice is served.” One person has been charged with inciting violence online, “sending a clear message that online agitators and organizers will also be held accountable,” the Home Office said.
The telecommunications regulator Ofcom urged social media companies to stop users inciting violence, and not wait for tougher rules to take effect. “There is no need to wait to make your sites and apps safer for users,” it said.
Bloomberg reported earlier that a message being shared by far-right activists on the Telegram platform called for demonstrations at around 30 refugee and immigration centers and law firms representing asylum seekers on Wednesday. The posts urged activists to “mask up.” The campaign group Tell Mama, which documents anti-Muslim incidents, said it had alerted the police to the posts.
Nottinghamshire Police said an address included on the list had no links to “any immigration business,” contradicting the claims of activists. “Officers have visited the address and it is home to an elderly person with vulnerabilities.”
Sky News separately reported Wednesday that police were aware of more than 100 far-right protests and 30 counter-demonstrations. The broadcasters said that more than 6,000 specialist officers were set to be deployed.
In a sign of concern about the risk of escalation, Labour officials urged the party’s members of Parliament not to inflame tensions. Cooper asked lawmakers on private call on Wednesday not to encourage counter-protests, people familiar with matter said. Chief Government Whip Alan Campbell expressed similar concerns in a letter to MPs.
That came after a home office minister, Jess Phillips, appeared to justify the decision of some men in her Birmingham constituency to don balaclavas and wave Palestinian flags in a place they thought far-right groups would target. Former Home Secretary James Cleverly said Phillips was “making excuses” for masked men, some of whom were accused of threatening journalists.
“It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re protesting — if you turn up in a mask, with a weapon, intent on causing disorder, you will face the full force of the law,” Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on X after the scenes in Birmingham, in an apparent rebuke of her neighboring MP.
There appears to be no formal leadership structure orchestrating the anti-immigrant protests violence, and far-right activists have mobilized online using X and Telegram to call for protests. But prominent figures have been accused of stoking unrest, including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who is better known as Tommy Robinson. The UK government criticized Elon Musk for posting on his X platform about the riots that “civil war is inevitable.”
Meanwhile a YouGov poll found 51% of respondents think immigration is the top issue facing the country, an increase in 10 percentage points since the middle of July. It’s the first time immigration has topped the pollster’s issue tracker since the year of the Brexit referendum in 2016. But it also found that there is little public support for the recent violent disorder on British streets.
“This country is faced with one of the worst spates of violent disorder in the last decade,” the Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Valentine said in a statement. “We will use every power, tactic and tool available to prevent further scenes of disorder.”
(Updates with regulator warns social media firms in seventh paragraph.)
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