British authorities said Thursday they were preparing for the possibility of further unrest, even as they applauded the efforts of anti-racism campaigners and police officers who largely stifled a threatened wave of far-right demonstrations overnight, according to Associated Press.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer sounded the note of caution after a week of anti-immigrant violence that has scarred communities from Northern Ireland to the south coast of England. Starmer spoke to reporters at a mosque in Solihull, near Birmingham, where demonstrators shut down a shopping center on Sunday.
“It’s important that we don’t let up here,” Starmer said.
At an emergency meeting with law enforcement officers at his office, Starmer said on Thursday evening that police need to remain on “high alert,” Britain’s Press Association reported. He credited strategic police staffing and swift justice for rioters in the courts for creating a deterrent that kept trouble at a minimum the night before.
Police across the United Kingdom had braced for widespread disorder on Wednesday, after far-right activists circulated a list of more than 100 sites they planned to target, including the offices of immigration lawyers and others offering services to migrants.
But those demonstrations failed to materialize as police and counter-protesters filled the streets.
Carrying signs saying “Refugees Welcome” and chanting “Whose streets? Our streets,” people turned out in force to protect asylum service centers and the offices of immigration attorneys.
The government also declared a national critical incident, putting 6,000 specially trained police on standby to respond to any disorder. Police said that protests and counter-protests were largely peaceful, though a small number of arrests were made.
“The show of force from the police and, frankly, the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we faced,” said Commissioner Mark Rowley, the head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. “It went off very peacefully last night, and the fears of extreme right disorder were abated.”
But tensions remain high after right-wing agitators fueled the violence by circulating misinformation about the identity of the suspect in a knife attack that killed three young girls in the English seaside town of Southport last week. The last child hospitalized in the July 29 stabbing has been released, police said Thursday.
Nearly 500 people have been arrested around the country after anti-immigrant mobs clashed with police, attacked mosques and overran two hotels housing asylum-seekers. Among them was a man in his 50s, arrested on suspicion of “encouraging murder.” The arrest came after a local Labour councilor allegedly called for far-right protesters’ throats to be “cut.’'
The Labour Party suspended Ricky Jones, who is alleged to have made the remark at a London demonstration Wednesday.
The government has pledged to track down and prosecute those responsible for the disorder, including people who incite violence online.
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