Far-right mobs target anti-racism protesters and police in UK's Plymouth

Continuing days of hooliganism and vandalism, hundreds of far-right rioters have clashed with anti-racism protesters and police in Plymouth, southwestern England.

Police arrested at least seven people on Monday who tried to keep the two groups separated.

Organised by far-right groups, including the anti-Muslim and xenophobic English Defense League on social media platforms and messaging apps, the rioters gathered in the city centre starting in the early afternoon.

Another group organised by anti-racism platforms was also in the city centre to hold a counter-protest.

Several police officers were wounded in skirmishes between the two sides, and a police van was damaged.

According to the latest numbers, more than 400 people have been arrested by the police for getting involved in violent riots across the country over the last several days.

'Not a protest, pure violence'

After chairing a Cobra emergency response committee meeting with senior police officials, Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned those taking part in riots of the full force of the law.

"This is not protest, it is pure violence," he wrote on X, adding: "We will have a standing army of public duty officers."

"We will ramp up criminal justice. We will apply criminal law online as well as offline. We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities."

The violence is a major challenge for Starmer who led his Labour party to a landslide win over the Conservatives.

MPs from all sides had urged Starmer to recall parliament from its summer holiday to discuss the worst violence England had seen since 2011, when riots followed the police killing of a mixed-race man in London.

Storm of misinformation

A claim that the suspect who killed three young girls at a dance class was an asylum seeker or immigrant has been viewed at least 15.7 million times across X, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, a Reuters news agency analysis showed.

Another false claim that he was an undocumented migrant and a Muslim who arrived in a small boat appeared on the website "Channel 3 Now", which later apologised for publishing misinformation that led to the violent riots.

Internet personality Andrew Tate on Tuesday shared a picture of a man he said was responsible for the attack with the caption "straight off the boat", but the claim was also incorrect as it was a picture of a 51-year-old man arrested for a separate stabbing in Ireland last year.

Separately, a Channel 4 analysis showed that 49 percent of traffic on social media platform X referencing 'Southport Muslim' — in reference to an unevidenced claim about the attacker's religion — came from the United States, with 30 percent coming from Britain.

The suspect was named on Thursday as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in the UK to Rwandan parents. Local media reported the suspect comes from a family "heavily involved with the local church."

By the time a judge said the teen suspect could be identified, rumours were already rife and far-right influencers had pinned the blame on immigrants and Muslims.

But the false information spread by far-right groups led to anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant riots even as mobs also clashed with police and anti-racism protestors.

The UK has been gripped by far-right riots for days, with violent mobs spewing racist and Islamophobic vitriol and targeting whoever they come across who looks like a migrant, Muslim or from minority groups.

Two hotels occupied by asylum seekers were attacked by far-right rioters in Rotherham and Tamworth.

Far-right groups are reorganising for more violence targeting asylum and immigration centres in London and across the country on Wednesday.

'There will be a reckoning for criminals & thugs'

"There will be a reckoning for criminals & thugs who took part in violence on streets, burning buildings, attacks on mosques, looting shops & the whipping up of racist violence online," Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also warned the far-right rioters on X.

"They do not speak for Britain & they'll pay the price for their crime."

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned social media companies that they must uphold laws that prohibit the incitement of violence online after this series of events.

Starmer said that the disturbances were not legitimate protests, saying it was criminal disorder that was "clearly driven by far-right hatred" before adding a warning to tech companies.

"Let me also say to large social media companies, and those who run them, violent disorder clearly whipped up online: that is also a crime. It's happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere," he said at a news conference, adding there was a "balance to be struck" in handling such platforms.

Source: TRT World