Starmer noted criminal justice system will maintain swift action in convicting those already arrested during riots
Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, has affirmed his commitment to addressing the recent wave of far-right unrest in English towns and cities, as further convictions have been made in connection to the disturbances.
While chairing an emergency meeting with senior ministers and police leaders on Thursday, Starmer emphasised the need to prepare for potential trouble in “the coming days”.
Top police chief Gavin Stephens cautioned that those with a propensity for violence and destruction remain a concern.
Additionally, Starmer underscored that the criminal justice system will maintain its swift action in convicting those already apprehended during the series of disturbances across England and Northern Ireland.
The province’s devolved assembly was recalled from summer recess after another night of disturbances in Belfast, where there were five arrests and a police officer was injured.
Northern Irish police have said the violence there has been exacerbated by pro-UK loyalist paramilitaries.
In England, police revealed nearly 500 people had now been arrested for alleged participation in the unrest and a judge in Liverpool, northwest England, jailed several more people for their involvement.
The disturbances, first sparked by a July 29 knife attack that killed three children, has seen mosques and migrant-related facilities attacked alongside police and other targets.
Officials have blamed misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator for fuelling the disorder.
Counter demonstrations by anti-racism protesters
“It’s important that we don’t let up here,” Starmer told media outlets as he visited a mosque and met community leaders in Solihull, western England.
Starmer credited “police deployed in numbers in the right places, giving reassurance to communities” with helping to ease the unrest overnight.
Wednesday evening turned out to be largely peaceful.
Instead of the far-right gatherings at dozens of sites linked to immigrant support services for which police had been preparing, thousands of anti-racism and anti-fascism protesters staged peaceful demonstrations.
They massed in cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.
“Whose streets? Our streets!” thousands chanted in Walthamstow, northeast London, where hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters joined the rally under a heavy police presence.
In a post on X, London Mayor Sadiq Khan thanked “thousands of Londoners who came out to stand up against racism last night”, as well as the “heroic police force working to keep Londoners safe”.
Although the Walthamstow event passed off peacefully, the capital’s Metropolitan Police said Thursday that officers were investigating “as a matter of urgency” a video filmed there.
In it, a now-suspended Labour councillor told the crowd that far-right rioters needed their throats “cut”.
London Metropolitan Police subsequently released a statement saying a man in his 50s had been arrested.
‘Thugs and criminals’
The UK government has put 6,000 specialist police on standby across England to deal with potential flashpoints, after far-right social media channels called for a string of immigration-linked sites to be targeted.
Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley, who ordered thousands of officers onto the capital’s streets Wednesday, commended the “show of force” from the police and “show of unity from communities”.
Rowley noted there had been a small number of arrests due to “some local criminals” engaging in anti-social behaviour in some locations but that fears of “extreme-right disorder were abated”.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council announced Thursday that 483 people had been arrested since trouble first flared on July 30, and that 149 charges had been filed.
That number will “continue to rise significantly,” the police body noted.
London police said on Thursday that officers had made 10 further arrests overnight, a week after protests outside Downing Street in Westminster turned violent.
Rowley, who joined the dawn raids, said those arrested “aren’t protestors, patriots or decent citizens”.
“They’re thugs and criminals,” he noted, adding most had previous convictions for weapon possession, violence, drugs and other serious offences.
After courts began handing down jail terms Wednesday for offenders tied to the unrest, more people charged appeared in the dock for a second day nationwide.
The riots flared after three girls — aged nine, seven and six — were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.
False online reports had suggested that the suspect was an illegal immigrant and a Muslim.
The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales. UK media report that his parents are from Rwanda, which is overwhelmingly Christian.
The unrest, Britain’s worst since the 2011 London riots, has led several countries to issue travel warnings for the UK.
