UK Protest: Anti-immigration protests erupt in UK; Starmer warns, ‘you will regret’
PTC News Desk: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued a warning to far-right demonstrators on Sunday, saying they would “regret” taking part in the worst rioting England has seen in 13 years, as unrest sparked by the three child murders earlier this week spread around the nation.
In Rotherham, South Yorkshire, masked protesters against immigration broke multiple windows of a hotel that has been housing asylum seekers. Many towns and cities have experienced unrest as a result of false information regarding the widespread stabbing that occurred last Monday in the coastal resort of Southport, northwest England. Protesters against immigration have engaged in combat with law enforcement.
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. either directly or by those inciting this movement online, and then fleeing themselves,” Starmer declared in a television speech.
He promised to bring the offenders “to justice” and stated that there was “no justification” for what he referred to as “far-right thuggery”.
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Shops looted, burnt
The BBC broadcast footage of rioters breaking into a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham. A burning trashcan was also shoved into the structure by them. Whether asylum seekers were inside remained unclear.
Although local police said that no hotel employees nor guests had been hurt, ten officers were hurt there.
Hundreds of demonstrators confronted shield-wielding riot police in the northern English city of Middlesbrough. Some others threw pots, cans, and bricks at the police. There, demonstrators took an AFP crew’s camera and destroyed it. There were no injuries to the journalists.
The latest unrest followed reports from the police that over 150 people had been taken into custody since Saturday as a result of altercations at far-right gatherings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Bristol, Blackpool, Liverpool, and Hull.
When protestors battled with counter-protesters, they hurled bricks, bottles, and flares at police, wounding multiple officers. They also looted and set fire to stores while yelling anti-Islamic insults.
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.
Religious leaders in Liverpool who are Christian, Muslim, and Jewish jointly made a request for calm.
“It’s (problem) spreading throughout big cities and villages right now,” Tiffany Lynch of the Police Federation of England and Wales stated.
Asylum seekers were reportedly housed in another hotel close to Birmingham late on Sunday, according to Staffordshire police.
One officer was hurt in the incident, which involved “a large group of individuals” “throwing projectiles, smashing windows, starting fires, and targeting police” at the hotel in the town of Tamworth.
Following a ferocious knife assault at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in Southport, a seaside city in the northwest of England on Monday, riots broke out there late on Tuesday and later expanded throughout the country.
They were stoked by untrue social media rumors on the background of Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old suspect who was born in Britain and is suspected of killing six, seven, and nine-year-olds as well as injuring ten more.
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.
Following at least two mosques being targeted by agitators, the UK Interior Ministry declared on Sunday that it will be providing additional emergency security to Islamic houses of worship.
“Enough is enough” is the banner used on far-right social media channels to promote the events.
Chanting slogans such as “Stop the boats”—a reference to undocumented migrants who are crossing the Channel from France to Britain—participants have waved both English and British flags.
In other towns, anti-fascist protestors have organized counter-rallies. In Leeds, for example, they chanted, “Nazi scum off our streets,” while far-right marchers sang, “You’re not English any more.”
Not every gathering has descended into violence. Participants in a nonviolent one on Sunday in Aldershot, southern England, held signs that said, “Stop the invasion” and “We’re not far right, we’re just right”.
“People are tired of hearing that being white and working class means you should be ashamed, but I’m proud to be white and working class,” Karina, 41, told AFP in Nottingham on Saturday. She did not provide her last name.
The left-leaning Green Party’s co-leader Carla Denyer stated that the turmoil ought to serve as “a wake-up call to all politicians who have actively promoted or given in” to racist speech. The Reform UK party, led by pro-Brexit advocate Nigel Farage, received 14% of the vote in last month’s election, which is among the highest vote shares.
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