Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to take “all necessary action” to end far-right riots that have spread across England and Northern Ireland, after online messages revealed plans for a co-ordinated attack on migration centres on Wednesday.
The prime minister told Cabinet on Tuesday that “people across the country want their streets to be safe and to feel safe in their communities, and we will take all necessary action to bring the disorder to an end”.
However, police in England are braced for a significant increase in violence on Wednesday, after a message shared across far-right activist groups listed 36 targets including immigration centres, law offices specialising in helping migrants, and refugee shelters.
Hotels housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and Tamworth — which were attacked over the weekend — have been evacuated, while several offices on the list are shutting or asking for extra police protection, people with knowledge of the situation said.
The message, seen by the Financial Times, was titled “no more immigration” and included instructions for rioters to gather at 8pm and to wear masks to hide their identity.
Five of the organisations on the list told the FT they were planning to close on Wednesday and had advised employees to work from home.
Two offices on the list said they had received assurances from the local police that they would send officers to the establishments on Wednesday to try to prevent damage, while three said that they had contacted the police but had not yet received any commitment that there would be extra security provided.
Following a night of violence in Plymouth, Belfast and Darlington that saw police injured and further arrests, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said anyone wearing a mask to a riot would be prosecuted.
“It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re protesting — if you turn up in a mask, with a weapon, intent on causing disorder, you will face the full force of the law,” she wrote on X.
Dozens more suspected rioters are due to appear before courts across England on Tuesday, while ministers said magistrates could be asked to sit through the night to deal with the expected volume of cases, which experts say could pass the thousands arrested during the 2011 unrest.
Justice minister Heidi Alexander said the government would “make it work” should extra court capacity be needed to try those responsible for the violence.
Courts could sit “through the evening, the night, at weekends” to process cases, as they did following the riots in 2011, she told LBC.
On Tuesday the first charge for intent to stir up racial hatred online was made in relation to the recent violent disorder, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Jordan Parlour, 28, was charged in connection with alleged posts on Facebook and is due to appear at Leeds Magistrates’ Court.
Starmer has been clear that his vow to ensure that all the perpetrators behind the violent unrest of the past week face the full force of the law applies to those acting online as well as on the streets.
Last week the prime minister warned large social media companies that violent disorder whipped up on their platforms was “also a crime”, adding: “It’s happening on your premises.”
As the disorder enters its second week, police officers have been told to cancel rest days, restrict their leave and work longer hours in order to respond to often unpredictable outbursts of violence.
Former chief inspector of constabulary Tom Winsor warned that forces are “already stretched” and that day-to-day policing would “suffer” as a result of the riots.
“When these officers are deployed in dealing with riots then they’re not investigating burglaries or violence or all the other things police have to do,” he told the BBC.
Refugee rights activists are concerned that police resources will be spread too thinly and asylum seekers remain under serious threat.
“All hotels that have been targeted should immediately be evacuated,” said Maddie Harris, director and founder of the Humans for Rights Network, a charity supporting refugees. “The government needs to map where is likely to be next and come up with a plan to keep people safe.”
Violence has so far flared up in more than a dozen towns or cities in England, but it is extremely hard to identify where violence will happen next as there are hotels and dispersal accommodation housing asylum seekers in hundreds of towns and cities across the UK.
Downing Street has also been speaking to regional mayors about the aftermath of last week’s violence.
North east mayor Kim McGuinness, whose area experienced violent disorder in Sunderland on Friday, said “comprehensive plans” were in place to prepare for and deal with any further disorder but urged ministers to clamp down on “distant and unaccountable social media companies” allowing hatred to spread online.
Credit: Source link