UK’s Starmer vows no let up in stopping further far-right riots

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Thursday not to ease up efforts to stop further far-right riots in English towns and cities, after more anticipated street violence failed to materialise overnight.

The UK leader said despite a largely peaceful Wednesday evening, he would chair another emergency meeting of senior ministers and police leaders later on Thursday to plan for potential trouble in “the coming days”.

He also noted the criminal justice system would continue “working speedily” to convict those already arrested during a week of near nightly riots across England and in Northern Ireland.

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It came as a judge in Liverpool, northeast England, jailed several more participants in the violence, which has seen mosques and migrant-related facilities attacked alongside police and other targets.

“It’s important that we don’t let up here,” Starmer told media outlets as he visited a mosque and met community leaders in Solihull, western England.

“That’s why later on today, I’ll have another… meeting with law enforcement, with senior police officers, to make sure that we reflect on last night but also plan for the coming days.”

Starmer credited “police deployed in numbers in the right places, giving reassurance to communities” with helping to ease the unrest overnight.

Instead of rumoured far-right gatherings at dozens of sites linked to immigrant support services, thousands of anti-racism and anti-facism protesters took to the streets.

– ‘Show of force’ –

They massed in considerable numbers, holding rallies in cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.

“Whose streets? Our streets!” thousands chanted in Walthamstow, northeast London, where hundreds of pro-Palestine supporters joined the rally under a heavy police presence.

However, Northern Ireland saw another night of disturbances — its fourth in a row.

There were five arrests and a police officer was injured during disorder in Belfast.

The UK government had put 6,000 specialist police on standby across England to deal with scores of potential flashpoints, after far-right social media channels called for a string of immigration-linked sites to be targeted.

The violence has been fuelled by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a knife attack on July 29 which killed three children.

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London’s Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley, who ordered thousands of officers onto the streets of the capital on Wednesday, said he was “really pleased” with how the police and local communities had responded to the riots.

“I think the show of force from the police — and frankly, the show of unity from communities together — defeated the challenges that we’ve seen,” he told UK broadcasters.

Rowley noted there had been a small number of arrests due to “some local criminals” engaging in anti-social behaviour in some locations but that fears of “extreme-right disorder were abated”.

– ‘Sowing hatred’ –

On Thursday, London mayor Sadiq Khan thanked “heroic police force working round the clock” and “those who came out peacefully to show London stands united against racism and Islamophobia”.

“And to those far-right thugs still intent on sowing hatred and division: you will never be welcome here,” he added on X.

Courts started on Wednesday to order jail terms for offenders tied to the unrest as authorities sought to deter fresh disorder.

The unrest, Britain’s worst since the 2011 London riots, has seen hundreds arrested and at least 120 charged, and has led several countries to issue travel warnings for the UK.

London police said on Thursday that officers had made 10 further arrests overnight, a week after protests outside Downing Street in Westminster turned violent.

Rowley, who joined the dawn raids, said those arrested “aren’t protestors, patriots or decent citizens”.

“They’re thugs and criminals,” he noted, adding most had previous convictions for weapon possession, violence, drugs and other serious offences.

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The riots broke out after three girls — aged nine, seven and six — were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.

False rumours spread on social media that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.

The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales.

UK media report that his parents are from Rwanda, which is overwhelmingly Christian.

© Agence France-Presse