(Bloomberg) — At least 100 people have been arrested after far-right protests descended into rioting this weekend in England and Northern Ireland, with police warning that the violence may not be over.
Disturbances have broken out in towns and cities including Blackpool, Belfast and Bristol since Friday night, with a number of police officers attacked and injured. The riots represent one of the biggest challenges facing the month-old Labour government, as it struggles to rein in the unrest.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged the government’s “full backing” for the police in dealing with the unrest. “Anyone who gets involved in criminal disorder and violent thuggery on our streets will have to pay the price,” she said in a video posted to X.
Tensions have risen since an attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance party left three young girls dead in Southport on Monday. Fueled by an online misinformation campaign, the attack was seized upon by far-right protesters, some of whom took to the street chanting anti-immigration slogans this weekend.
Around 300 people were involved in disturbances in the Walton area of Liverpool on Saturday night, according to Merseyside Police. The force, which is also responsible for nearby Southport, said that a local convenience store was set on fire and that a library was damaged, while firefighters who attended to the scene had a missile thrown at their vehicle. The police force said it made 23 arrests on Saturday.
“We will do whatever it takes to make sure that people can get through the court system,” Diana Johnson, the policing minister, said in an interview on Sky News Sunday. Courts could sit through the night to deal with the large number of people arrested if necessary, she added.
Following the attack in Southport, a number of influential right-wing accounts on X spread false information about the perpetrator, including claims that he was an asylum seeker or a refugee. That led to protests and skirmishes with police, including in London, earlier in the week.
Even after the attacker was named as Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old from a village near Southport who was born in Cardiff, Wales, protesters have continued to target immigrants.
Police have warned that the disturbances could continue on Sunday, with protests and demonstrations planned for a number of towns in England, according to posts from activists on social media.
In Hull, demonstrators gathered outside a hotel that houses asylum seekers, a number of windows were smashed and bottles thrown. In videos uploaded to social media many of the protesters can be heard chanting “stop the boats,” a reference to crossings made from the European continent by migrants attempting to get to Britain.
Many police forces across the country have issued so-called dispersal orders to try and break up and deter rioters. Three police officers were hospitalized after violence in Sunderland, the police force there said in a statement. There were also disturbances in Leicester, Stoke-on Trent, Nottingham and Manchester.
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