On Sunday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the recent “far-right thuggery” and vowed that those responsible would face the full extent of the law. His statement followed days of violent anti-immigration protests that escalated into attacks on hotels. From 10 Downing Street, Starmer addressed the situation as police battled to contain hundreds of rioters who assaulted a Holiday Inn Express hotel used to house asylum seekers in Rotherham, a town in northern England.
Police are also bracing for more unrest in Britain after three girls were killed in a knife attack at a children’s dance class in Southport in northwest England last week. The attacker, who has not been named, burst into the Taylor Swift-themed workshop and stabbed Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. Two adults were also critically injured in the ferocious assault. The attack prompted police to step up security at Muslim places of worship, and far-right demonstrators gathered for a series of violent protests, including near the home of a London mosque where more than 100 people were arrested for offenses such as assault on emergency workers.
Some rioters threw beer cans and flares at police, who fought them back with baton charges. Others broke windows and threw rocks and chairs. In the aftermath, the prime minister held crisis talks with top police officers at No. 10. He told them they would be encouraged to share intelligence and use facial recognition technology to restrict the movement of known agitators in the same way football banning orders are used to prevent hooligans from attending games.
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Senior officers, including Scotland Yard’s deputy commissioner Dame Lynne Owens, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist, the National Crime Agency chief Robert Jones, and police chiefs from Merseyside and West Yorkshire forces, attended the meeting.
Starmer, a former lawyer for the disbanded English Defence League, blamed those behind the violence on “fearmongering and hate.” He urged social media bosses to do more to stop people being influenced by false information. He criticized “the thugs and the vandals” but praised police officers who stood up for their communities. He promised the authorities would do “whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice.”
In a video posted on Facebook, Starmer urged Britain’s citizens to stand up for their community and their country. He said: “Those who stood on the sidelines and did nothing today are as complicit in this behavior as those who took part in the thuggery.” He called for a “strategically targeted and relentless response” to the attacks and the policing of them, saying it was “not acceptable that people should be able to gather in our streets and online to cause distress, harm, and damage.” His office confirmed that the prime minister will not go on vacation this week. But his office rushed to stifle reports that he was flying off to the United States as tensions over immigration and the rise of the far-right continued to mount.