Fears of New Riots Put U.K. on High Alert
Thousands of police officers fanned out across Britain on Wednesday amid fears that protests planned by far-right groups would descend into fresh violence after days of anti-immigrant riots shocked the country. But at least as of early evening, large far-right protests had not materialized and only a handful of arrests had been made.
Instead, thousands of antiracism protesters gathered in cities across the country, including Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool and London. Some of those demonstrations were close to places that had been identified as potential targets for rioters.
More than a dozen towns and cities across Britain experienced violent unrest over the past week, fueled in part by far-right agitators and an online disinformation campaign intent on creating disorder after a deadly knife attack on a children’s class in northwestern England. Rioters clashed with the police, set cars alight and targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers.
Far-right groups had called for further protests on Wednesday night, with the BBC reporting that the police were monitoring at least 30 locations, including London.
With tensions running high, some 6,000 specialist public-order police officers were mobilized nationwide to respond to any disorder. The authorities in several cities and towns stepped up patrols and gave the police extended powers to arrest those they believed were intent on causing unrest, even before any riots started.
Among a small number of arrests reported on Wednesday night was one in Southampton where Hampshire police said they had detained a 40-year-old man from nearby Eastleigh. That incident took place after a small group of anti-immigration protesters gathered but were outnumbered, and the police kept the two groups apart.
A list circulating on messaging apps and social media showed more than 30 spots that might be targeted by far-right protests. Many were businesses or charities that support asylum seekers and refugees; a number of them closed after the list circulated.
That list included Liverpool, where by 8:30 p.m., the antiracism demonstration had taken on an almost joyous tone. Hundreds of people gathered on the street outside a charity that supports asylum seekers, which had been on a list of places where the far right had purportedly planned to gather.
People banged drums, chanted “Fascists out!” and held signs that read “Love Not Hate” as a helicopter circled overhead. There was a large police presence, but the far-right crowd failed to materialize. Instead, the gathering was diverse, made up of locals who were surprised that their street had become the center of a demonstration, union groups and others who voiced condemnation of the recent violence in Britain.
“It’s a quiet place normally, this neighborhood, and I am not happy with the far right trying to come here,” said Terry O’Brien, 52, who has lived in Liverpool all his life. “We have never had a problem with immigrants here, and people are trying to come here and bring violence.”
Experts who monitor the far right said that the threats of violence had already caused trauma.
“Understandably, the wide circulation of this list has caused a great deal of distress, unease and fear,” said Joe Mulholland, the director of research for Hope Not Hate, an advocacy group in Britain that researches extremist organizations. “Indeed, this list has been compiled precisely to spread these emotions within Muslim and immigrant communities.”
A snap poll published on Wednesday by YouGov found that after the week of disorder, nearly half of Britons view right-wing extremists as a “big threat,” a 15 percentage point increase in just six months.
But people who said they voted last month for Reform UK, the populist anti-immigration party led by Nigel Farage, were less likely than others to see right-wing extremists as a major threat: Just 18 percent said they did.
While a vast majority of people polled opposed the riots, 21 percent of Reform UK voters expressed support.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned late on Tuesday that anyone involved in the violence would face “the full force of the law,” noting that more than 400 people had already been arrested and around 100 charged.
“That should send a very powerful message,” he said, “to anybody involved, either directly or online, that you are likely to be dealt with within a week, and that nobody, nobody, should be involving themselves in this disorder.”
Much of the unrest over the last week was driven by disinformation on social media and by calls to action by far-right groups on messaging apps like Telegram.
On Wednesday, Telegram said its moderators were removing channels and posts containing calls to violence, which it says are forbidden under its terms of service. It said moderators not only were monitoring public parts of the platform, but it was using AI tools and user reports “to ensure content that breaches Telegram’s terms is removed.”
Stephen Castle and Adam Satariano contributed reporting from London.
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