 "After far-right riots in the UK, come anti-racist protests: Is calm returning to the country?")
Britain is on fire. Residents and authorities expected the worst on Wednesday (August 7) as warnings emerged of at least 100 far-right marches being planned across the country.
The police had staged their biggest mobilisation to counter the likely disorder. Lawyers’ offices were shut down, high street shops were boarded up, GP practices closed early and MPs were told to consider working from home.
However, what unfolded across several parts of the country was unexpected. Instead of far-right protesters taking to the streets of Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton and London, counter-protesters carrying signs such as “no place for hate”, “refugees welcome” and “reject racism, try therapy” took to the streets in towns.
But this doesn’t seem to be the end. For the past 10 days, the country has seen noisy protests, many of which turned violent and targeted mosques and hostels housing asylum seekers, resulting in United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer finding himself firefighting riots linked to the far right and with Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk .
Here’s what you need to know about what has happened, how the violence has spread across the nation and how it is being countered.
How did the riots begin?
On July 29, three young girls — Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7), and Alice da Silva Aguiar (9) — were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event. Eight more children and two adults were injured.
Shortly after the attack, police said they had arrested a 17-year-old and that they were not treating the incident as terror-related. While authorities initially didn’t reveal the identity or any details about the attacker, social media posts falsely began to speculate that the suspect was an asylum seeker, with one media channel — Channel3Now — reporting that the suspect was Muslim and even provided a false name.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe following evening, more than a thousand people attended a vigil for the victims in Southport. It was then that violence broke out near a local mosque. People threw bricks, bottles and other missiles at the mosque and police, a police van was set alight and 27 officers were taken to the hospital.
In the days following the attack, the suspect was named as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana , a British-born teenager who is neither a Muslim nor a migrant.
How did the violence spread?
Despite authorities naming the suspect behind the stabbings to be Rudakubana, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant posts started to multiply on social media networks.
Well-known far-right figures such as EDL founder Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and the influencer Andrew Tate began posting speedily, stirring up hatred online.
Tate said in a video on X that an “undocumented migrant” who had “arrived on a boat” had attacked the girls in Southport. Robinson told his 800,000 followers on X that there was “more evidence to suggest Islam is a mental health issue rather than a religion of peace”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is said to have fuelled tensions by questioning whether police were being truthful about Southport’s attack not being “terror-related”.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, also jumped into the discussion later in the week. Responding to a video posted on X by the Libs of TikTok, an account known to be associated with the far right, the billionaire wrote that “civil war is inevitable”. He later also termed Starmer as #TwoTierKier — an apparent reference to a debunked claim spread by conspiracy theorists and populist politicians such as Nigel Farage that “two-tier policing” means right-wing protests are dealt with more forcefully than those organised by the left. He also likened Britain to the Soviet Union for attempting to restrict offensive speech on social media.
Where have the riots taken place?
Following the riots in Southport, the violence has engulfed the UK — from Plymouth on the south coast to Sunderland in the North East. There have also been riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Just a day after the Southport riots, violent protesters gathered in London outside Starmer’s residence, 10 Downing, and were in scuffles with the police. Since then violent far-right demonstrations have taken place in more than a dozen towns and cities.
In Middlesbrough, cars were set on fire and protesters threw rocks at police personnel. Last Sunday (August 4), hotels housing asylum seekers were targeted by rioters in Rotherham and Tamworth. In Rotherham, rioters broke into the hotel, attempted to set it on fire and blocked the exits while asylum seekers were inside. The hotel in Tamworth was also set alight.
There were also reports of rioters hurling Molotov cocktails and smashing windows and other properties in the area.
Across the country, a number of racist attacks connected to the riots were also perpetrated. For instance, in Hull, a group of rioters attacked an Asian man in his car, reported The Guardian. In Belfast, a man in his 50s was taken to hospital on Monday after he was seriously assaulted.
Other places such as Sunderland, Stoke-on-Trent and several more cities, mostly across the Midlands and north of England also witnessed violence in the past few days.
On Wednesday, the British police reportedly prepared itself for another night of violence amid concerns that anti-immigration groups plan to target as many as 30 locations around the United Kingdom.
The head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service said officers were focused on protecting immigration lawyers and services. In addition to thousands of officers already deployed, about 1,300 specialist forces were on standby in case of serious trouble in London.
The violence has seen over 400 people being arrested, 100 of whom have already been charged. However, the police continue to search for those involved in the violence by searching through hours of footage that has been uploaded to social media, especially the video platform TikTok.
Meanwhile, UK PM Keir Starmer has described the riots as “far-right thuggery” and vowed to punish all involved. In a speech from Downing Street, he said: “People in this country have a right to be safe and yet, we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric.
“So no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: Far-right thuggery.”
He also stated that a “ standing army ” of specialist public duty officers was being introduced to ensure police could deal with the disorder where needed.
What about these anti-racist protests?
In an attempt to denounce what’s happening in the country, thousands of anti-racism protesters gathered across England on Wednesday. Chants of “There are many, many more of us than you” rang out loud across the country.
At 7 pm in Liverpool, hundreds of people formed a human shield outside a targeted church that hosts an immigration advice centre while women held banners saying: “Nans against Nazis”, reported The Guardian.
Similar scenes were witnessed in Hackney and Walthamstow, both in east London, and Finchley in the north of the capital, as thousands of local people and anti-fascist activists came together and held placards saying “we are one human race” and “unite against hate”.
However, in Aldershot in Hampshire, tensions flared when a group chanting “stop the boats” clashed with protesters holding “stand up to racism” placards. Dozens of police officers rushed onto the road to stop the groups from getting too close to each other. There were also reported skirmishes in Blackpool.
It remains unclear if the counter-protests signify an end to the violence in the UK, but fears have abated across the country. Police also expect the next couple of days to be relatively quiet.
However, it remains to be seen if people will give peace a chance or will violence erupt once again in the country.
With inputs from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
