(Bloomberg) -- Keir Starmer insisted authorities would maintain a crackdown on violent far-right disorder plaguing British streets, even after an expected night of rioting was averted by a heavy turnout by police and thousands of anti-racism counter-protesters.
The prime minister said on Thursday that he would convene another emergency meeting with law enforcement officers to “reflect on last night” and plan for the days ahead. “It’s important that we don’t let up here,” he told broadcasters.
Police had 6,000 specialist officers ready to guard areas around immigration-related facilities on Wednesday, after online agitators posted messages urging supporters to converge on them. The unrest was initially triggered last week by the fatal stabbings of three young girls and false rumors that the attacker was Muslim asylum-seeker, before morphing into anti-immigration and racist disorder.
But instead of more brick-throwing, attempted arson and police officers under attack, what emerged were large crowds voicing their rejection of the violence, looting and destruction of property of recent days. They waved placards with “Geordies Are Of All Colours” in Newcastle and “Bigots out of Brum” in Birmingham, and Metropolitan Police officers stood in baseball caps watching the crowds in eastern and northern areas of London.
“What last night illustrated was the vast majority of people in this country are law-abiding, are tolerant, respect the police, want their communities to be ones that are safe for all communities,” Policing Minister Diana Johnson told the BBC.
There were reports of some anti-immigrant protesters showing up in areas including Blackpool in northern England and Aldershot in the south. By 10 p.m., police had reported only a handful of arrests, including eight in Croydon, south London, for assaulting emergency workers, possessing offensive weapons and other offenses — though the police stressed they were “not linked to protest” and appeared “to be pure anti-social behavior.”
In Northern Ireland, the devolved assembly is holding an emergency meeting to address violent disorder on the streets of Belfast, amid concern that far-right, anti-immigration agitators from the Republic of Ireland have been linking up with so-called loyalist paramilitary groups to stoke unrest.
Still, the overall picture on Wednesday night provided considerable respite for the police and Starmer, whose month-old administration faces its first major test in its handling of the unrest.
The government has worked to fast-track arrests and convictions of rioters and people inciting violence online, with the first jail sentences handed out in under a week to try to create a deterrent. It’s a tactic Starmer used as director of public prosecutions after the last major outbreak of rioting in the UK in 2011.
Police forces have acknowledged being taken by surprise at the speed with which the violence spread after the murder of three girls in Southport, northwest England last week. A vigil was hijacked by anti-immigration agitators, and even after the judge in the case took the rare step of naming the teenage suspect to try to quell the online rumors, the rioting continued.
Adding to the challenge was the fact the far-right activists involved appeared to have no formal leadership structure, mobilizing online using X and Telegram to call for protests. Prominent figures have been accused of stoking unrest, including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who is better known as Tommy Robinson.
After the government criticized Elon Musk for posting on his X platform about the riots that “civil war is inevitable,” the billionaire responded with a series of posts attacking Starmer.
Authorities also suspect foreign state-backed actors have been using bots and accounts with stolen identities on X to amplify anti-immigration sentiment, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Conversations between Russian-speaking trolls focused on how they have infiltrated channels on Telegram.
But right-wing politicians have also been accused of encouraging anti-immigrant rhetoric to take hold. Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage was criticized for repeating conspiracy theories about the Southport attack. The former Brexit campaigner has also previously used social media to draw attention to hotels housing asylum-seekers on social media, some of which were attacked.
Meanwhile, former Conservative premiers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak also took aim at “lefty lawyers” they said were thwarting their attempts to tackle immigration, which soared to record levels under the Tories. “Stop the Boats” — a reference to Sunak’s policy to focus attention on the asylum-seekers arriving across the English Channel — is also a prominent slogan among rioters.
Some immigration lawyers’ offices were prominent on the list of facilities circulated by far-right agitators ahead of Wednesday. Concern about what was about to unfold led banks and consultancies to send staff home early.
Against that backdrop, a YouGov survey found 51% of people think immigration is the top issue facing the country, the first time that’s been the case since the Brexit referendum in 2016 and an increase of 10 percentage points since mid-July. But the pollster also found that there is little support for violent disorder.
In the event, the worst fears of the government and police forces did not materialize on Wednesday. In London, Mayor Sadiq Khan credited the deterrent effect of a strong police presence.
The question is whether the violence will now subside, or whether it also took the presence of thousands of counter-protesters to put the far-right agitators off. The start of the football league season on Saturday — the divisions below the highest Premier League — looms as a potential pressure point, given the extra strain it puts on police officers, looms as a potential challenge.
An alternative theory is that a weekend distraction could help keep people off the streets. During her morning broadcast round, Johnson was asked whether clubs should also ban supporters found to have been involved in the riots.
“If that’s what football clubs or rugby clubs choose to do, that’s a matter for them, but all tactics and all options should be looked at,” she told LBC Radio.
--With assistance from Asad Zulfiqar, Eleanor Thornber and Jennifer Duggan.
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