Emergency Meeting To Be Held By UK PM Due To Far-Right Riots

Following fresh far-right riots across England last week in response to the murder of three children, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is scheduled to chair an emergency response meeting on Monday.

The prime minister will preside over a meeting between law enforcement and ministers to talk about how to stop the violence that started on Tuesday in Southport, northwest England.

Hundreds of individuals have been arrested by police in towns and cities around the country as rioters and anti-immigration protestors, including Muslim organizations, engage in combat with the police.

The disturbances come after last Monday’s tragedy in Southport, where a knife assault during a dance class with a Taylor Swift theme left three young girls dead and five more seriously injured.

While his interior minister, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC on Monday that “there will be a reckoning,” Starmer warned rioters on Sunday that they would “regret” taking part in England’s worst disturbance in 13 years.

Authorities have attributed the violence to members and affiliated groups of the English Defence League, a 15-year-old anti-Islamic group whose members have been connected to football hooliganism.

A hotel that houses asylum seekers was the scene of some of the worst events on Sunday, with masked rioters smashing many windows. The incident happened in Rotherham, in northern England.

According to South Yorkshire Police, at least ten policemen were hurt, including one who was rendered unconscious.

Large-scale altercations also occurred in Middlesbrough, North East England, and Bolton, North West England; in these incidents, crowds broke windows of automobiles and residences, resulting in 43 arrests.

There, demonstrators took an AFP crew’s camera and destroyed it. There were no injuries to the journalists.

Asylum seekers were reportedly housed in another hotel close to Birmingham late on Sunday, according to Staffordshire police.

The statement stated that one officer had been hurt as a result of “a large group of individuals” “throwing projectiles, smashing windows, starting fires, and targeting police” at the hotel in the town of Tamworth.

Shops set on fire and looted
For Starmer, who was elected just one month ago after guiding Labour to a resounding victory against the Conservatives, the violence poses a serious challenge.

“I promise you that engaging in this disease will make you regret it. Starmer stated on Sunday, “whether directly or those inciting this action online and then fleeing themselves.”

He promised to bring the offenders “to justice” and stated that there was “no justification” for what he referred to as “far-right thuggery.”

All parties’ members of parliament, including former Conservative interior minister Priti Patel, Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, have urged Starmer to summon back parliament from its summer break.

Over 150 people were reportedly arrested over the weekend, according to the police.

While protestors yelled anti-Islamic epithets and engaged in physical altercations with counter-protesters, the former set fire to stores and hurled bricks, bottles, and flares at law enforcement, wounding multiple officers.

The violence is the worst England has witnessed since rioting broke out widely in the summer of 2011 in response to the police shooting of a man of mixed race in north London.

“Awakening call”

Authorities claim that untrue social media rumors on the background of 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana, a British national, contributed to some of the initial violence. Rudakubana is charged with the murders of six, seven, and nine-year-olds as well as the injuries of ten more individuals.

Cooper claimed on Monday that the violence was given a “rocket booster” by social media.

At least two mosques have been the target of agitators, and Cooper declared on Sunday that the government was providing additional emergency security to Islamic places of worship.

“Enough is enough” is the banner used by far-right social media channels to promote the events.

While yelling “Stop the boats,” an allusion to undocumented migrants who cross the Channel from France to Britain, participants have waved both English and British flags.

In the meantime, counter-rallies have been held in other cities by anti-fascist activists.

One of the highest vote shares for a hard-right British party, the Reform UK party, led by Brexit enthusiast Farage, received 14% of the vote in last month’s election.