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UK riots: PM Starmer pledges swift action toward agitators

August 5, 2024

The UK prime minister said he would not tolerate attacks on mosques and Muslim communities after days of far-right riots. The rioters have falsely blamed a stabbing of girls at a dance studio on Muslim immigrants.

https://p.dw.com/p/4j8JB
A protester holds a smoke flare as police officers stand outside a hotel, in Rotherham, Britain, August 4, 2024.
British authorities are ramping up their efforts to deal with far-right unrest after the stabbings in SouthportImage: Hollie Adams/REUTERS

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday pledged swift action toward far-right rioters who stirred unrest across the country in recent days. 

What did Starmer say?

"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."

Far-right riots unsettle UK's Muslim community

The rioters have been influenced by false information that suggested a Muslim immigrant was behind a fatal stabbing targeting girls at a dance studio in the northwestern English seaside town of Southport on July 29. The 17-year-old suspect behind the stabbings was not Muslim but rather born in Wales to Rwandan parents. 

Starmer said Monday that social media companies should do more to stop inflammatory content online. He emphasized that "criminal law applies online as well as offline" and said online agitators will be met with "the full force of the law."   

A burning police vehicle in Southport, England on July 30
The unrest in the England is the biggest since 2011Image: Getty Images

The rioters attacked a hotel in northern England suspected of housing asylum seekers and clashed with police. Officers were injured over the weekend due to altercations with rioters amid reports of looting and vandalism. 

Places that have seen unrest recently include Liverpool, Bristol and the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast, among others. British authorities have taken over 300 people into custody in less than a week after the stabbings in Southport. 

Starmer said that a "standing army" of specialist police officers would be deployed in areas of the country that experience bouts of unrest. 

UK Prime Minister speaks on July 31 after the stabbings in Southport
Dealing with the riots is Starmer's first major challenge as prime minister since coming into office one month agoImage: Henry Nicholls/PA Wire/dpa/picture alliance

Who is believed to be inciting the riots?

Several figures in British society are believed to have influenced the recent unrest. The most prominent is 41-year-old Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the name Tommy Robinson.

Yaxley-Lennon, a far-right anti-Muslim agitator, previously led the ultranationalist English Defence League social movement.

Yaxley-Lennon is accused of using his account on social media platform X to share misinformation about the stabbings and engage in fearmongering. Yaxley-Lennon has over 875,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, and frequently posts about "Muslim mobs" in the UK.  

Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing populist Reform UK party, has also been criticized amid the riots. Farage has questioned the British government's claim that the stabbings were "not terror-related" and has been accused of sowing anti-immigration sentiment after the Southport attacks.  

Far-right protests are UK's worst riots in 13 years

wd/rmt (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)