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A far-right mob has set fire to a hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers and stormed inside.
Violent thugs in balaclavas draped in the St George’s flags hurled chairs and set off fire extinguishers at police outside of the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, South Yorkshire on Sunday afternoon. The anti-immigrant hooligans chanted “get them out”, “you’re not welcome anymore” and “Yorkshire” as they encouraged each other to attack the hotel.
Another young group of men held a banner saying: “Stopping the boats means stopping the stabbings” and other offensive chants could be heard targeting Muslims and immigrants.
Home secretary condemned the incident in a statement on Twitter and warned those taking part of the repercussions.
“The criminal, violent attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham is utterly appalling,” she said. “Deliberately setting fire to a building with people known to be inside. South Yorkshire Police have full Government support for the strongest action against those responsible.
Tensions in Rotherham had been running high earlier in the day as the protesters gathered outside the hotel to be met by anti-racism protesters who chanted “refugees welcome”. It escalated out of control as the anti-immigrant protesters hurled missiles at the hotel and attacked police officers with pieces of wood and chairs. One officer has been dragged away from the scene with a suspected injury.
Rotherham’s MP Sarah Champion, said: “I’m extremely concerned at the escalating violence we are seeing at Holiday Inn, Manvers. The people causing damage and attacking police do not represent our town and I am disgusted by their actions. This is criminal disorder and intimidation - not protest.”
And Shadow home secretary James Cleverly hit out at the scenes, saying: “There is not and can never be any excuse, justification or rationale for behavior like this.
“This should be condemned by everybody, and those taking part should expect to be met with the full weight of the law.”
It marks another day of far-right violence on the streets of Britain after battles between police and anti-immigrant thugs on Saturday in various cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and Hull.
The far-right has drawn widespread condemnation after disorder in multiple towns and cities in the wake of the killings of three young girls in Southport on Monday.
False claims had spread online that the suspect, later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana from Lancashire, was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.
Sir Keir held crisis talks with ministers on Saturday over the unrest, with Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood telling colleagues “the whole justice system is ready to deliver convictions as quickly as possible”.
Elsewhere, more than 300 members of the far-right started marching through Middlesbrough at 4.25pm after gathering at the city’s Cenotaph.
They carried a banner saying: “Tom Jones is Welsh, Axel Rudakubana isn’t” and chanted “We want our country back” as they made their way through the city centre.
At one point police used dogs to keep the group back and stop them breaking through and running ahead of the officers patrolling the march.
At least two people were taken away in handcuffs within the first half hour, while several pieces of slate were thrown, along with vapes and full plastic bottles.
Some people kicked bollards into the road so that police vehicles driving ahead of the group could not get through, and one man sat on the bonnet of a police car to stop it from moving.
Businesses including McDonald’s locked their doors as hundreds of demonstrators walked through the city centre.
