UK | Attacks on migrant hotels, PM vows to punish rioters

(Rotherham) Riots of unprecedented violence for more than a decade continued in the United Kingdom on Sunday, where at least two hotels housing asylum seekers were targeted, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer promising that anti-migrant and Islamophobic rioters would regret their actions.

The riots began after three girls were killed in a knife attack in Southport, northwest England, on Monday, a tragedy that sparked widespread rumours and misinformation on social media about the alleged attacker’s religion and origins.

“I guarantee you that you will regret having participated in this disorder,” whether directly or indirectly, “by having provoked these online actions,” said the head of the Labour government, which came to power just a month ago, during a short statement from Downing Street.

Keir Starmer has vowed that his government will do “whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice as quickly as possible”.

He spoke after further rallies took place on Sunday under the slogan “Enough is enough”, in reference to the arrival in the UK of migrants crossing the Channel in rubber dinghies.

Law enforcement said it had made nearly 150 arrests since Saturday.

In Tamworth, near Birmingham (centre), the local police said they intervened on Sunday evening near a hotel, targeted by a “large group of individuals”. They “threw projectiles, broke windows, lit fires and targeted the police” and one police officer was injured, they detailed.

Earlier in Rotherham, in the north, several hundred people gathered outside a hotel housing asylum seekers and clashes broke out with the police.

At least ten police officers were injured, but no hotel staff or guests, local police said.

Some participants broke windows of the establishment, started a fire, threw projectiles at the police, while others shouted slogans like “Kick them out”.

Some managed to enter the hotel, although it was not immediately clear whether any asylum seekers were inside that day.

Fourth day of violence

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the acts as “absolutely appalling”.

In Middlesbrough (northeast), there were also disturbances in the town centre. An AFP team had its camera broken by demonstrators.

Jamie Atkinson, 34, told AFP that he had “nothing to do with the far right” and was there for “the little girls” killed in Southport and to ask that we “stop people we know nothing about from coming to us”, referring to migrants arriving in the United Kingdom.

Other demonstrations took place across the country, in Aldershot (south-west), Bolton (north) and Weymouth (south), in a generally tense climate.

This is the fourth day of violence in the United Kingdom since the murder of the three girls. Riots and clashes between police, demonstrators, and sometimes anti-racist counter-demonstrators, have taken place in a dozen cities, including Liverpool (north-west), Hull (north-east), Belfast (Northern Ireland), Leeds (north), Sunderland (north-east) and in Southport on Tuesday, where a mosque was targeted.

The suspect in the three murders, a 17-year-old boy, has been charged and taken into custody.

On Sunday, Liverpool religious leaders representing different faiths issued a statement calling for unity.

The country has not seen such a surge since 2011, after the death of a young mixed-race man, Mark Duggan, by police in north London.

Protected mosques

Since Monday, Keir Starmer has been issuing a series of messages of firmness and support for the police against what he again described on Sunday as “far-right violence”.

“If you target people because of the color of their skin or their religion, that’s far-right,” he insisted.

The government has announced that it will increase police protection of mosques.

Some commentators and politicians have argued that the rise of anti-immigration rhetoric in the political class has legitimised the protesters.

In the last general election, the anti-immigration party Reform UK won more than 14% of the vote.

For Green Party co-president Carla Denyer, this violence should serve as “a warning signal for all political leaders” who have used anti-immigration rhetoric.