THE Prime Minister is set to hold an emergency meeting with senior police officers in Downing Street following a second night of violence across England in which more than 100 people were arrested.
The meeting in Downing Street on Thursday afternoon comes after scenes of violent unrest in London, Hartlepool and Manchester overnight while a demonstration in Aldershot saw a tense stand-off with riot police.
In London, more than 100 people were arrested after protesters in Whitehall launched beer cans and glass bottles at police and threw flares at the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.
London earlier today. Where are their leaders? Ah, yes they’re busy stoking up more of this across the country. https://t.co/7w5RL3BsVz
— Michael Morgan (@mikecmorgan) July 31, 2024
Demonstrators wearing England flags and waving banners saying “enough is enough” and “stop the boats” had congregated outside Downing Street in the wake of the killing of three young girls in a knife attack in Southport, which social media posts had wrongly claimed was carried out by a Muslim asylum seeker who crossed the Channel in a small boat.
The angry scenes also included loud chants of: “We want our country back” and: “Oh Tommy Robinson,” referring to the right-wing activist. One man wore a shirt with the slogan: “Nigel Farage for Prime Minister, Tommy Robinson for Home Secretary”.
Confrontations continued late into the night in Hartlepool, where demonstrators set fire to a police car and pelted officers with missiles, including glass bottles.
Cleveland Police have so far made eight arrests, with more expected.
Manchester police confronted another demonstration outside the Holiday Inn on Oldham Road before dispersing the crowd after protesters started throwing beer bottles at officers and members of the public.
According to the Manchester Evening News, this incident also saw chants of "we want our country back”, while a group of men were seen jumping in the path of a bus, smashing its wing mirror and assaulting a passenger.
Aldershot appears to have escaped the violence seen in other parts of the country, but a demonstration there was still met by riot police.
The string of violent incidents follows similar scenes in Southport on Tuesday, where demonstrators attacked police and set cars on fire.
On Thursday afternoon, Sir Keir Starmer (above) will meet with senior police leaders in Downing Street to express his full support for their efforts to deal with the violence.
He is expected to praise their “bravery” in dealing with both the incident in Southport and its aftermath, and encourage them to use their powers to “stop mindless violence in its tracks”.
The meeting comes as a 17-year-old boy has been charged with the murders of the three girls.
Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, were fatally stabbed on Monday when a knifeman entered a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Hart Street in Southport, Merseyside.
Eight other children suffered knife wounds – with five of them in a critical condition – while two adults were also critically injured.
The 17-year-old has been remanded in custody to appear on Thursday at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court.
