UK police are bracing for potential further violent far-right demonstrations in the wake of several skirmishes after online misinformation attributed the stabbing of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance class to a Muslim immigrant.
Demonstrations were being promoted online over the coming days in towns and cities including Sunderland, Belfast, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester, using phrases including “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats”.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to end the mayhem and said police across the UK would be given more resources to stop “a breakdown in law and order on our streets”.
The British government’s adviser on political violence and disruption John Woodcock said there was a “concerted and coordinated” attempt to spread the violence.
The murders on Monday of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, in the seaside town of Southport shocked a country where knife crime is a longstanding and vexing problem, though mass stabbings are rare.
Seventeen-year-old Axel Rudakubana was charged with murder over the knife attacks. He was charged with 10 counts of attempted murder for the eight children and two adults who were wounded.
Rudakubana was born in the United Kingdom to Rwandan parents and lived close to the scene of the attack.
A violent demonstration in Southport on Tuesday was followed by others around the country, fuelled in part by online misinformation that said the attacker was Muslim and an immigrant.
Suspects who are under 18 are usually not named in the UK, but judge Andrew Menary ordered that Rudakubana could be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation.
Far-right demonstrators held several violent protests in response to the murders, clashing with police outside a mosque in Southport on Tuesday and hurling beer cans, bottles and flares near the prime minister’s office in London the next day.
Police officers were pelted with bottles and eggs in the town of Hartlepool in northeast England, where a police car was set ablaze. Seven men aged 28 to 54 were charged with violent disorder and were due in court Friday, the local Cleveland Police force said.
The Muslim Council of Britain urged mosques to review and strengthen their security protocols during Friday prayer amid fears of protests “seeking to intimidate Muslim communities and mosques.”
Starmer condemned the violence and blamed it on “far-right hatred” at a news conference on Thursday.
“This is coordinated; this is deliberate,” the prime minister said. “This is not a protest that has got out of hand. It is a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence.”
Starmer put some of the blame on social media companies, though he did not announce any measures to address that, and said there was a balance to be struck between the value they offer and the threat they can pose.
“Violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a crime. It’s happening on your premises,” he said.
He added that his so-called National Violent Disorder Program would enable police to move between communities while officers will harness facial recognition technology to identify culprits.
