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England is experiencing an eruption of anti-immigrant and far-right violence the likes of which has not been seen for years. Towns and cities have been overtaken by mobs of often masked men chanting anti-immigrant slogans, attacking hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques, clashing with police and causing widespread destruction.
What has sparked the violence?
The disturbances first broke out after a mass stabbing in the seaside town of Southport, near Liverpool in England’s north-west. Three young girls were killed in an attack at a dance class on a residential street. But before the suspect’s identity was confirmed — Axel Rudakubana, 17 — far-right influencers and conspiracy theorists had spread disinformation, saying the suspect was a Muslim recently arrived in the UK to claim asylum. They have used public horror at the knife attack to whip up tension between communities, stoke anger at immigration and spread Islamophobic sentiment.
Where are the riots taking place?
The first riot broke out in Southport last Tuesday after residents had held a peaceful vigil for the girls. Hundreds of activists, many from outside the town, marched to a nearby mosque, after plans for protests had been publicised by extremists on social media. More than 50 officers were injured, some seriously, by protesters who hurled bricks and bottles, and torched a police van. The violence spread, along with further online disinformation, in the following days — to Hartlepool in the north-east, Manchester in the north-west, the garrison town of Aldershot, and Downing Street, home of the prime minister. More than 100 people were arrested in London. At the weekend disorder grew, mostly in the north where counter-protests also built up. Some of the worst violence was in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where a hotel housing asylum seekers was attacked, and in Middlesbrough and Sunderland in the north-east.
Who is behind the riots?
The protests erupted in the week after Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, founder of the now defunct anti-Islam, anti-immigrant English Defence League, better known as Tommy Robinson, had held the biggest far-right rally in London for years. Experts in extremism say it buoyed far-right sympathisers. Robinson, who left the country last Sunday, has played a significant part in stoking rage, alongside some of his allies, with English nationalist commentary online targeting immigrants, Islam, the government and police. Efforts to quell the unrest are complicated by how the far right has evolved from more formally organised white-supremacist groups into personality-driven splinter groups. Their ability to whip up anger and organise protests has been enhanced by social media, including TikTok, X and Facebook, as well as dedicated channels on Telegram.
Who and what is motivating the protesters?
Much of the online commentary has included mistrust of Islam and a sense of grievance over record levels of both clandestine and regular migration. The killings in Southport — although by a UK-born resident — prompted a torrent of disinformation blaming both immigrants in general, and Muslims in particular, for crime. Far-right sympathisers also accuse the police of treating nationalist and white protesters more harshly on the streets than they do, for example, pro-Palestine demonstrators.
Xenophobic discourse around asylum seekers was given greater purchase under the previous Conservative government, when politicians such as Suella Braverman, then home secretary, spoke of an “invasion”. Record levels of clandestine migration across the Channel from France became a defining feature of the premiership of Rishi Sunak, who lost office in July. His slogan “stop the boats” has been chanted at some of the past week’s protests. One of Sir Keir Starmer’s first actions was to scrap Sunak’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda — a move that also attracted the ire of some protesters. Nigel Farage, founder of the hard-right Reform party and now an MP, also sought to capitalise on the disturbances to further his own anti-migrant message.
How does the government plan to quell the violence?
In 2011 Starmer, in his then role as head of the Crown Prosecution Service, oversaw the harsh sentencing of hundreds of people after riots and looting which came after the police shooting of a black man. This week Starmer has announced a new national policing unit to tackle the disorder, which he calls “violent thuggery”. It will consider issuing criminal-behaviour orders to restrict the movement of rioters, as happens with football hooligans. At least 300 arrests have already been made. Police and prosecutors will have far more online footage to comb through than in 2011, meaning many more rioters are likely to be identified.
So far, the rioters appear undeterred and further protests are being planned.
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