Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: A month after taking his oath, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday warned far-right, anti-immigration, anti-Muslim protesters that they would “regret” participating in England’s worst rioting in 13 years, as disturbances linked to the murder of three children last week flared across the country.
The UK, which has a Muslim population of 3.4 million has, for the first time, elected an unprecedented 25 members to the House of Commons.
The anti-immigration rioters’ rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner “Enough is enough.”
The media reported that masked anti-immigration demonstrators smashed several windows at a hotel being used to house asylum seekers in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
Widespread riots after the alleged ‘misinformation’ about the mass stabbing last Monday in the northwestern English seaside town of Southport hit several towns and cities, where anti-immigration demonstrators clashed with police.
The violence is a major challenge for PM Starmer, viewed as going soft on the immigrants and asylum seekers, even after he was elected in July, leading Labour to a landslide win over the Conservatives.
“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder. Whether directly or those whipping up this action online, and then running away themselves,” Starmer said in a TV address.
There was “no justification” for what he denounced as “far-right thuggery,” he added, promising to bring the perpetrators “to justice.”
According to a BBC report, rioters forced their way into a Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Rotherham and pushed a burning bin into the building. It was not clear whether asylum seekers were inside.
Ten officers were injured there, but local police said none of the hotel staff or its clients had been hurt.
In the northeastern English city of Middlesbrough, hundreds of protesters threw bricks, cans, and pots at police officers, and also seized a camera from a media person and broke it. However, the journalists were not injured.
The fresh disturbances came after police arrested over 150 people since Saturday last week, following skirmishes at far-right rallies in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Blackpool and Hull, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Rioters threw bricks, bottles, and flares at police — injuring several officers — and looted and burnt shops, while demonstrators shouted anti-Islamic slurs as they clashed with counter-protesters.
The violence is the worst England has seen since the summer of 2011 when widespread rioting followed the police killing of a mixed-race man in north London.
The ruling Labor Party roped in Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious leaders in Liverpool to issue a joint appeal for calm.
“We’re now seeing it (trouble) flooding across major cities and towns,” said Tiffany Lynch of the Police Federation of England and Wales.
Late Sunday, Staffordshire police said another hotel known to have sheltered asylum seekers was targeted near Birmingham.
“A large group of individuals” have been “throwing projectiles, smashing windows, starting fires and targeting police” at the hotel in the town of Tamworth, with one officer injured, said the statement.
Riots first flared in Southport late Tuesday following Monday’s frenzied knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in the northwest coastal city, before spreading up and down England.
They were allegedly fuelled by false rumors on social media about the background of British-born 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana, who is accused of killing a six, seven, and nine-year-old, and injuring another 10 people.
Police blamed the violence on supporters and associated organizations of the English Defence League, an anti-Islam organization founded 15 years ago whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.
Protestors have targeted at least two mosques, and the UK interior ministry announced Sunday it was offering new emergency security to Islamic places of worship.
Participants waved English and British flags while chanting slogans like “Stop the Boats,” a reference to irregular migrants crossing the Channel from France into Britain.
Anti-fascist demonstrators have held counter-rallies in many cities, including Leeds where they shouted, “Nazi scum off our streets,” as the far-right protesters chanted, “You’re not English anymore.”
Not all the gatherings have turned violent. A peaceful one in Aldershot, southern England, on Sunday, saw participants hold placards that read “Stop the invasion” and “We’re not far right, we’re just right.”
At last month’s election, the Reform UK party led by Brexit cheerleader Nigel Farage captured 14 percent of the vote — one of the largest vote shares for a far-right British party.
Carla Denyer, co-leader of the left-wing Green party, said the unrest should be “a wake-up call to all politicians who have actively promoted or given in” to anti-immigration rhetoric.