British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has lashed out at “right-wing thugs” after days of rioting across the country by people furious at mass open border immigration. Starmer has recently addressed the nation twice, each time saying the government would protect immigrant communities. However, he was met with some backlash for failing to address or give any legitimacy to protestors’ concerns.
Among the towns and cities that have witnessed disorder is the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in northern England. Rotherham made international headlines in 2014 when a government investigation revealed that 1,400 young girls were raped and forced into prostitution by predominantly Muslim gangs over the previous decade. Since then, the town’s name has been synonymous with immigrant crime, and several anti-mass migration demonstrations have taken place there over recent years.
The latest disorder was sparked by a separate crime against young girls, when the son of Rwandan immigrants crashed into a dance event in the northwest England town of Southport, killing three children, aged six, seven, and nine, and injuring almost a dozen others. The first demonstrations broke out in Southport but soon spread across the country. In Rotherham, rioters set fire to a hotel housing illegal immigrants, who are housed in countless facilities nationwide at taxpayers’ expense.
Holiday Inn Express staff told reporters they pushed furniture against doors and windows to stop demonstrators getting inside. Around 240 illegal immigrants were housed in the building, but there were no reports of any injuries. Rioters shouted, “Send them home.”
In extraordinary scenes in Northern Ireland, British Loyalists and Irish Republicans – who have been at war for centuries in the province – marched together through Belfast and other Northern Irish towns, flying their flags side by side in unprecedented scenes.
On Saturday, 3 August, police arrested over 90 people in cities including Leeds, Bristol, Sunderland, and Blackpool, and Keir Starmer warned that those who continued to protest would “regret it.” He received criticism, however, for failing to mention Muslim riots in some areas, including in the English Midlands town of Stoke-on-Trent, where the so-called Muslim Defense League carried weapons and marched through the city chanting Allahu Akbar.
In Liverpool, located close to Southport, police suffered injuries amid violent clashes with demonstrators. Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said families had fled the area and police officers were attacked, including one who was pushed from his motorcycle. Others were taken to hospital with broken bones.
In the largely left-leaning city of Bristol, where Black Lives Matter rioters tore down statues in the summer of 2020, police engaged in violent scuffles with numerous marchers as “anti-racism” groups came onto the streets to confront anti-migration activists. Police made more than a dozen arrests.
In Sunderland, in northeast England, two police stations were set alight, and in Manchester, groups clashed in the city’s famous Piccadilly Gardens. Police made several arrests in both instances.
Meanwhile, 17-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana was held without bail at a youth detention facility and charged with three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and unlawful possession of a knife. He allegedly broke into a Taylor Swift dance class and began stabbing people indiscriminately.
