FILE PHOTO: UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers’ Questions session in parliament in London, July 24, 2024. (Associated Press Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that a “standing army” of specialist police would be set up to deal with rioting and that the justice system would be ramped up to handle hundreds of arrests after violent disorder rocked cities across the nation over the past week.
Starmer convened an urgent meeting after lawlessness he blamed on “far-right thuggery” that was driven in part by misinformation on social media that whipped up anger over a stabbing rampage at a dance class that killed three girls and wounded 10 people. False rumors spread online that the suspect was a Muslim asylum-seeker led to attacks on immigrants and mosques.
“Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest. It is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” Starmer said. “The full force of the law will be visited on all those who are identified as having taken part in these activities.”
On Sunday, angry mobs attacked two hotels used to house asylum seekers, breaking windows and lighting fires before police dispersed the crowds and residents were evacuated. Dozens of police officers have been hospitalized for injuries in the past six days after being struck with bricks, bottles and large wooden posts.
More than 375 people have been arrested in the mayhem so far and more are expected, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said.
READ: UK police: Street violence affects resources needed to probe crimes
Many made court appearances Monday and found themselves facing at least several weeks behind bars awaiting their next court hearing.
Deputy District Judge Liam McStay in Belfast Magistrates’ Court refused bail for two men who had participated in a march that trashed businesses and set a supermarket on fire in the capital of Northern Ireland. He said he couldn’t allow that to be repeated and “visited on other people.”
“The events at the weekend were absolutely disgraceful: a concerted and deliberate attempt to undermine public order and to then domineer the community and there were racist elements to it,” McStay said. “The message has to be if you allow yourself to become involved in these matters for whatever reason, then you will face the consequences.”
Starmer’s plan to beef up the criminal justice system and deliver quick justice faces significant challenges as courts are already backed up and prisons are so overcrowded that plans were already in the works to release inmates early, said Cassia Rowland, a senior researcher at the Institute for Government think tank.
“That’s not a problem you can fix overnight and it’s going to be difficult, I think, for the system to cope with the influx of demand that we’re likely to see as a result of this disorder,” Rowland said.
Starmer has dismissed calls to reconvene Parliament to deal with the crisis or send in the army. His office said police can handle the disorder.
In the meeting with ministers and top law enforcement officials, Starmer said social media companies have not done enough to prevent the spread of misinformation that has fueled far-right violence and vowed that anyone who stokes the disorder — online or on the streets — could face prison, a spokesperson said. Some of that false and misleading information has come from foreign states.
“The disinformation that we’ve seen online attracts amplification from known bot activity, which, as I say, can be linked to state-backed activity,” a Starmer spokesperson said in a read-out of the meeting.
People look at the floral tribute at the Atkinson arts center in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, after three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club last week. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week’s stabbing. (Associated Press Photo/Darren Staples)
Starmer’s office condemned Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, for responding to a post of footage of the violence by saying: “civil war is inevitable.”
“There’s no justification for comments like that,” the spokesperson said. “We’re talking about a minority of thugs who don’t speak for Britain.”
Near Rotheram, in Northern England, where a violent mob on Sunday stormed a Holiday Inn Express where migrants were housed, throwing chairs at police and setting a fire, a crowd of volunteers showed up Monday to help clean up the mess.
READ: UK police brace for more far-right protests
Police guarded the building as glass from broken windows was swept up. A wooden fence behind the building had been destroyed by men who tore off planks of wood and hurled them at police.
“I’m horrified. I’m appalled by the violence that we saw yesterday,” Oliver Coppard, the mayor of South Yorkshire, said. “We saw a violent far-right mob come down to attack 240 of the most vulnerable people in our society and try and burn them in the hotel in which they were living. That is not OK and there is no excuse for it.”
In Southport, where rioting first broke out July 30 — the day after the horrific stabbing there — police said only one child remained in the hospital. The seven other children and two adults who were seriously injured had been discharged.
A vigil was held Monday to remember the three girls killed at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class: Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9.
Hundreds of parents and children gathered around bouquets of flowers and stuffed animals outside The Atkinson arts center in memory of the girls. As a piano played, children blew iridescent bubbles that hung and swirled in the air before they were gone.