By Lucy Adautin
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will hold an urgent meeting with police chiefs on Monday in response to a surge in violent anti-immigration protests. The turmoil has seen buildings and vehicles set ablaze and hotels accommodating asylum seekers attacked.
Over the past week, riots have erupted in multiple towns and cities, sparked by a knife attack in Southport, northwest England, which claimed the lives of three girls. So far, authorities have arrested 420 individuals related to the violence.
Anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim factions have exploited the murders, disseminating false information online that the suspect was a newly arrived radical Islamist. However, police clarified that the attacker was born in Britain and are not treating the case as a terrorist incident.
Interior Minister Yvette Cooper stated that the rioters were “emboldened by this moment to stir up racial hatred,” leading to bricks being hurled at police officers, looting of shops, and assaults on mosques and businesses owned by Asians.
Over the weekend, riots erupted in Liverpool, Bristol, Tamworth, Middlesbrough, and Belfast, Northern Ireland. Predominantly young men, masked and draped in British flags, hurled rocks and shouted “Stop the Boats,” referencing the recent influx of migrants on the south coast. In Rotherham, northern England, protesters attempted to breach a hotel housing asylum seekers.
Authorities have identified online disinformation, amplified by high-profile figures, as a significant catalyst for the violence. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, former leader of the anti-Islam English Defence League, has been accused by the media of spreading false information to his 875,000 followers on X.
“They are lying to you all,” Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, wrote. “Attempting to turn the nation against me. I need you, you are my voice.”
Elon Musk, the owner of X, also weighed in on the violence. Responding to a post attributing the disorder in Britain to mass migration and open borders, he wrote: “Civil war is inevitable.”
Interior Minister Yvette Cooper stated that online networks of various individuals and groups had inflamed tensions and that the government would address the issue with social media companies.
“What you’ve seen is that networks of different individuals and groups have been trying to fan the flames,” she said.
While recognizing that people have legitimate views and concerns about immigration, Cooper attributed the unrest to extremist, racist, and violent groups.
“Reasonable people who have all those sorts of views and concerns do not pick up bricks and throw them at the police,” she said.
