LONDON — The United Kingdom woke up Sunday morning to streets covered in rubble and smoldering trash as a weekend of far-right anti-immigration demonstrations — fueled by conspiracy theories spread on social media — spiraled into violence in seven cities across the country.
Police arrested at least 100 people and riot police, wearing helmets and holding shields, showed up en masse when the prime minister Keir Starmer promised to take action against “extremists.”
On Saturday, groups in Leeds carrying St George’s Cross flags, the national flag of England that is regularly flown by far-right groups, shouted “Muslims off our streets” along with a slur suggesting they were criminal child abusers. In the city of Hull, rioters threw bottles and smashed a window at a hotel housing asylum seekers, as protesters clashed with police.
What began as targeted anti-immigration protests quickly descended into aimless chaos. A library in Liverpool, due to reopen in 2023 as an ‘education-to-employment’ service for people of all abilities, was set on fire.
A police officer in the city was hit over the head with a chair and another was kicked and thrown from his motorcycle. The police force responsible for the region confirmed that two officers were taken to hospital with injuries.
Starmer condemned the violence on Saturday, saying the right to freedom of expression and violent disorder were “two very different things”, adding that “there is no excuse for violence of any kind”.
Some protests did not turn violent. In the southwestern city of Bristol, groups chanted “We want our country back,” while others chanted “England ‘til I die.” There were also clashes with counter-protesters chanting “Racist scum, off our streets.”
The last demonstrations follow a week of riots in the countryside after three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift dance party in the town of Southport. At the heart of the protests was a conspiracy theory, spread on social media, based on a lie that the perpetrator was Muslim, an asylum seeker or both.
Less than three hours after the girls were attacked, AI-generated images were shared on X by an account called Europe invasion showing a man in traditional Islamic dress brandishing a knife outside the British Parliament building. The post has since been viewed more than 900,000 times.
A TikTok account with no previous content calling for protests near the attack site also received nearly 60,000 views within hours, a Tech Against Terrorism spokesperson told The Guardian.
And so the country was united in mourning for the girls for only a short time, until their hometown of Southport was rocked by violence when a group of mainly white men threw bottles and rocks at police officers and a mosque.
Restrictions on reporting the suspect, who is under 18, were eventually lifted to prevent the spread of misinformation after a false name circulated online.
Coincidentally, the suspect, Axel Rudakubana, 17, was born in the Welsh capital Cardiff and had lived in a village near Southport itself for years, police said. The motive behind the stabbings is still unknown.
Yet far-right violence continues, fuelled by growing support in the recent British general election and the persistent belief that mass immigration is draining the country’s resources and endangering its children.
Another sign of the far right’s effective online presence is that the call for mobilisation is being led by a number of influential figures who have significant followings but are in practice absent.
Far-right English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, who last week fled Britain where he was due to appear in court for alleged contempt of court, was among the first to call for nationwide protests, urging his 800,000 followers to “take to the streets.” Other online personalities, such as internet influencer Andrew Tatewho stays in Romania As he prepares to stand trial on human trafficking charges, he said in a video on X that the attacker was an “illegal immigrant.”
More than 30 protests are planned for the weekend and thousands of extra riot police are on standby. More demonstrations are expected to take place on Sunday.
About 100 protesters supporting refugees gathered outside a Rotherham hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers early on Sunday afternoon, chanting “refugees are welcome here,” while anti-asylum seeker groups threw objects at the hotel, smashed windows and set fire to a bin. At least one police officer was injured, the BBC reported.
Britain’s police minister told BBC Radio on Sunday that there would be “consequences” for those who “go out and attack our police officers, loot shops, destroy property and intimidate communities.” A chorus of police officers across the country also condemned the violence.
While the center-left Work Partistic recently achieved an overwhelming victory In the British elections in July, that shift to the left was accompanied by growing support for the far-right Reform UK party, which won 4 million votes.
Labour’s success was partly due to the growing popularity of the far right, which split the right vote and caused many Conservative lawmakers to lose their seats in parliament.
The latest protests puncture any notion that Starmer’s centre-left government has dodged a rising hard-right movement that continues to surge across the continent. Behind his majority, an angry and active far-right undercurrent continues to make itself heard.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
