Rioters attack hotels used to house asylum seekers in UK’s worst riots in years

 

Rioters torched and broke into hotels used to house asylum seekers in northern England on Sunday, as the country grapples with its worst social unrest in years.

The violence was sparked by the stabbing of three teenage girls earlier this week in Southport, north-west England.

The far right has exploited and spread a wave of misinformation, including false claims that the attacker was an immigrant, to mobilize anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests.

According to police, the suspect was born in Britain.

Geotagged footage from CNN shows protesters vandalising and torching two Holiday Inns in northern England on Sunday: one in Tamworth, which had previously been criticised by a local politician for hosting asylum seekers, and another in Rotherham.

In Tamworth, protesters threw projectiles, smashed windows and started fires, injuring a police officer, according to local authorities.

Meanwhile in Rotherham, protesters threw wooden planks, used fire extinguishers on officers, set fire to objects near the hotel and smashed windows to gain entry, police said.

According to a statement from Deputy Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield, the Rotherham hotel was “full of terrified residents and staff” at the time.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the weekend’s violent protests, during which at least 147 people have been arrested since Saturday evening.

Those involved in acts of violence will face the full force of the law, he warned.

“People in this country have a right to be safe and yet we have seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities targeted, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on police, gratuitous violence coupled with racist rhetoric. So no, I will not hesitate to call it by its name: far-right hooliganism,” Starmer said from Downing Street on Sunday.

Turning to the scenes of violence in Rotherham, Starmer described “marauding gangs intent on breaking the law” and stressed that the violent rioters do not “represent our country”.

The UK’s police minister said a “swift arrest” approach would be taken against far-right rioters who caused disorder, but added there was no need to call in the army.

In comments to the BBC, Dame Diana Johnson stressed that the plan involved swift arrests and charges to get rioters off the streets as quickly as possible and act as a deterrent to prevent further disorder.

The violent unrest is the worst since the riots of 2011 and poses a huge challenge to Keir Starmer’s Labour government, which came to power only weeks later.

There have been discussions about bringing in the military to assist the police, but at the moment “there is no need to do that,” Johnson said. “The police have made it very clear that they have all the resources they need at the moment. There is mutual aid, as I just described, and they have the powers they need.”

On Sunday, the UK Home Office announced that mosques across the country would be offered “greater protection with new emergency security measures” in light of recent attacks.

Under the new provisions, “police, local authorities and mosques can request that security measures be deployed quickly, protecting communities and enabling a return to worship as quickly as possible,” the Interior Ministry said.

“No one should make excuses for the shameful actions of thugs, hooligans and extremist groups who attacked police officers, looted local shops or attacked people based on the colour of their skin,” said Interior Minister Yvette Cooper.

Riot police stand in front of windows broken by rioters outside the Holiday Inn Express Hotel.
Riot police stand in front of windows broken by rioters outside the Holiday Inn Express Hotel. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Joe Mulhall, research director at Hope Not Hate, an anti-racism and anti-fascist charity, warned that social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has become a central space for spreading dangerous misinformation and promoting protests.

Speaking to CNN, Mulhall said: “This wave of racist riots and attacks is not centrally organized, but rather has emerged from decentralized far-right networks, many of which operate on X.

“Some of the most prominent figures spreading misinformation and escalating tensions, most notably Stephen Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), had previously been removed from Platform X, but have had their accounts returned since Elon Musk took control of the platform.

“This has meant that far-right extremists are once again able to reach millions of people with their dangerous and divisive propaganda.” [CNN]

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