British authorities warned Thursday of potential further unrest while commending anti-racism campaigners and police officers who effectively curbed a planned surge of far-right demonstrations overnight.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for caution following a week of anti-immigrant violence that has left communities from Northern Ireland to the south coast of England reeling.
Speaking at a mosque in Solihull, near Birmingham, Starmer addressed reporters after demonstrators disrupted a shopping center on Sunday.
“It’s important that we don’t let up here,” Starmer said.
At an emergency meeting with law enforcement officers at his office, Starmer said police need to remain on “high alert,” Britain’s Press Association reported.
He credited strategic police staffing and swift justice for rioters in the courts for creating a deterrent that minimized trouble the night before.
Police across the United Kingdom had braced for widespread disorder on Wednesday after far-right activists circulated a list of more than 100 sites they planned to target, including the offices of immigration lawyers and others offering services to migrants.
But those demonstrations failed to materialize as police and counter-protesters filled the streets.
Carrying signs saying “Refugees Welcome” and chanting “Whose streets? Our streets,” people turned out in force to protect asylum service centers and the offices of immigration attorneys.
The government also declared a national critical incident, putting 6,000 specially trained police on standby to respond to any disorder. Police said that protests and counter-protests were largely peaceful, though a small number of arrests were made.
“The show of force from the police and, frankly, the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we faced,” said Commissioner Mark Rowley, head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. “It went off very peacefully last night, and the fears of extreme right disorder were abated.”
But tensions remain high after right-wing agitators fueled violence by spreading misinformation about the identity of the suspect in a knife attack that killed three young girls in Southport last week. The last child hospitalized in the July 29 stabbing has been released, police said Thursday.
Nearly 500 people have been arrested around the country after anti-immigrant mobs clashed with police, attacked mosques, and overran two hotels housing asylum-seekers. Among them was a man in his 50s arrested on suspicion of “encouraging murder.” This arrest followed a local Labour councilor’s alleged call for far-right protesters’ throats to be “cut.”
The Labour Party suspended Ricky Jones, who is accused of remarking a London demonstration Wednesday.
The government has pledged to track down and prosecute those responsible for the disorder, including individuals who incite violence online.
To dissuade future unrest and show that rioters will face swift justice, TV cameras were allowed into Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday as Judge Andrew Menary sentenced two men to 32 months in prison.
During the hearing, prosecutors played a video of rioters pelting police with bricks and setting garbage cans on fire.
One suspect was part of a group that ripped the bumper off a police vehicle and threw it at officers as onlookers cheered.
“It seems to me there were hundreds of people observing as if this was some sort of Tuesday night entertainment,” Menary said. “All of them should be frankly ashamed of themselves.”
Northern Ireland’s regional legislative assembly convened Thursday to respond to the unrest. Minister for Justice Naomi Long said the violence and racist attacks in recent days were “not reflective” of the people of Northern Ireland.
“We need to call it for what it is. It is racism, it is Islamophobia, it is xenophobia,” she said. “If we’re going to deal with it, we need to name it for what it is, and we need to challenge it.”
The government is also considering sanctions other than jail time, including banning rioters from soccer matches. Home Office minister Diana Johnson told LBC Radio that there should be consequences for those implicated in disorder.
“I think all options are being looked at, to be honest, and I am pretty clear that most football clubs do not want to be seen to have football hooligans and people carrying out criminal acts on the streets of the local communities in their stands on a Saturday,” she said.
