SOLIHULL: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Thursday not to ease efforts to stop more far-right riots in English cities after more expected street violence failed to materialize overnight.
The British leader said that despite a largely quiet Wednesday night, he would chair another emergency meeting of senior ministers and police chiefs later on Thursday to plan for potential problems in the “coming days”.
He also noted that the criminal justice system would continue to work “quickly” to convict those already arrested during a week of near-nightly riots in England and Northern Ireland.
It came as a judge in Liverpool, northeast England, jailed several others involved in the violence, which saw attacks on mosques and migrant-related facilities, along with police and other targets.
“It's important that we don't let it down here,” Starmer told media when he visited a mosque and met with community leaders in Solihull, western England.
“That's why later today I'll have another… meeting with law enforcement, with senior officers to make sure we reflect on last night but also plan for the coming days.”
Starmer credited “police deployed in numbers in the right places, providing reassurance to the communities” for helping to quell the unrest overnight.
Instead of the rumble of far-right rallies at dozens of venues linked to immigrant support services, thousands took to the streets to protest racism and fascism.
They gathered in considerable numbers and held meetings in cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.
“Whose street? Our streets!” thousands of people chanted in Walthamstow, northeast London, where hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters joined the rally amid a heavy police presence.
However, Northern Ireland experienced another night of unrest – the fourth in a row.
During the riots in Belfast, five were arrested and one police officer was injured.
The UK government has put 6,000 specialist police officers on alert across England to deal with multiple potential outbreaks after far-right social media channels called for a number of immigration-related sites to be targeted.
The violence was fueled by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a July 29 knife attack that killed three children.
London's Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley, who ordered thousands of officers onto the streets of the capital on Wednesday, said he was “really pleased” with the way police and local communities responded to the riots.
“I think the show of force by the police – and frankly, the show of community unity together – defeated the challenges that we saw,” he told British television stations.
Rowley noted that there had been a small number of arrests due to “some local criminals” engaging in anti-social behavior in some localities, but fears of “extreme right-wing disorder had been quelled”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Thursday thanked the “heroic police force working around the clock” and “those who came out peacefully to show that London stands united against racism and Islamophobia”.
“And to those far-right thugs who still want to sow hatred and division: you will never be welcome here,” he added on X.
Courts on Wednesday began handing down prison sentences for offenders linked to the riots as authorities scrambled to prevent further unrest.
The riots, Britain's worst since the London riots in 2011, saw hundreds arrested and at least 120 charged and led several countries to issue travel warnings to the UK.
London police said on Thursday that officers made 10 more arrests overnight, a week after protests outside Downing Street in Westminster turned violent.
Rowley, who joined the morning raids, said those arrested “are not protesters, patriots or decent citizens”.
“They are thugs and criminals,” he noted, adding that most of them had previous convictions for possession of weapons, violence, drugs and other serious crimes.
The riots broke out after three girls – aged nine, seven and six – were killed and five other children were seriously injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport, north-west England.
False rumors circulated on social media that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales.
British media reports that his parents are from Rwanda, which is predominantly Christian.
