Violence outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Knowsley was “completely unacceptable”, a minister has said, amid growing criticism of the government’s use of “dehumanising” language to describe people seeking refuge in the UK.
The international development minister, Andrew Mitchell, said the violent scenes in Merseyside on Friday night, in which a police van was set alight and stones were thrown, were “totally unjustifiable … and the government condemns it absolutely”.
On Sunday, a 19-year-old man, Jarad Skeete, from the Aigburth suburb of Liverpool, was charged with violent disorder and assault by beating of an emergency worker.
He will appear at Wirral adult remand court on Monday, while the other 14 people who were arrested, all aged between 13 and 54, have been released on bail.
Lisa Nandy, the shadow secretary for levelling up, housing and communities, said government language was part of a “really toxic mix” that had led to the violent protest.
“You’ve got a government that talks about things like ‘an invasion’ in relation to immigration; you have a perfect storm,” she said. “We could change the rhetoric around asylum so that we no longer have a home secretary that tries to blame the government’s failings on some of the most vulnerable people in our country.”
Meanwhile, in unusually forthright criticism, a Church of England bishop said the “dehumanising” language of some politicians enabled hatred and threatened the common good.
In a sermon delivered at Blackburn Cathedral on Sunday, Arun Arora, the bishop of Kirkstall, referred to the Knowsley protest before saying: “The language that our politicians use matters – language which dehumanises, language which incites, language that enables those bad actors of the far right to march from the margins and threaten the common good.”
He acknowledged that “the pulpit is not a place to be party political” but said it was a place to “reckon with politicians” about the words and rhetoric they use. “The political arithmetic of our leaders needs to multiply hope, enabling cohesion, rather than dividing communities through enabling hatred,” he said.
Karen Fletcher, a local community activist who was at the Knowsley hotel on Friday night to support the asylum seekers, said: “I’ve attended these things before but on this occasion it was a much bigger turnout than people envisioned. It was pretty scary.
“Refugees were looking out the windows and seeing fireworks aimed at them. [Protesters] were shouting quite loudly ‘go home’ and ‘get them out’. It was quite upsetting because I just thought, what if these people come back tomorrow or the next day and manage to actually set fire to the hotel?”
“I just fear in that community they’re now so open and vulnerable to attack, and they’re already vulnerable people.”
Refugee charity Care4Calais visited the Knowsley hotel on Saturday to check on the residents where they said the “mood was muted” and people were “naturally disturbed”.
One man from Afghanistan reportedly said: “I wasn’t safe in my country and I’m not safe here.”
“They are trapped in that hotel,” the charity said in a post on their website. “They can’t leave. They can’t go to the shop to buy a snack or cigarettes. So many told us they can’t sleep.”
Speaking on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Mitchell said: “I want to make it absolutely clear that the violence we saw is completely unacceptable. The law will take its course.”
He said the Home Office was “trying very hard now to stop the excessive use of hotels” for housing asylum seekers.
“This is an unprecedented time in terms of Britain helping people who are caught in desperate jeopardy,” he said, adding it was “the norm across the country” for people to be welcoming.
Police said they had been aware of rumours on social media before the protest that a man had “made inappropriate advances towards a teenage girl”, and a man in his 20s was arrested on Thursday before being released with no further action while investigations are ongoing.
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, said the “alleged behaviour of some asylum seekers is never an excuse for violence and intimidation”.
Her comments were criticised by the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, who said: “The shameful and appalling scenes in Knowsley show how far-right groups are using social media to organise and promote violence.
“Everyone should support Merseyside police in dealing with extremism and violence. The home secretary is wrong to dismiss far-right threats for political reasons. Instead, she should be championing vigilance against all kinds of extremism.”
Last weekend a video emerged showing about a dozen protesters shouting “out” to people inside Mansfield’s Midland hotel, which is housing asylum seekers. In January, four people were arrested after a protest outside a Britannia hotel in Leeds.
