SOLIHULL: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Thursday to continue intensive efforts to stop more far-right riots in English cities as more people were sentenced for their roles in the riots.
Starmer chaired another emergency meeting of senior ministers and police leaders later on Thursday to plan for potential problems in the “coming days”, with top police chief Gavin Stephens warning that “the intent for violence and destruction has not gone away”.
Starmer also noted that the criminal justice system would continue to work “quickly” to convict those already arrested during a week of near-nightly riots in England and Northern Ireland.
The province’s Delegated Assembly has been recalled from its summer break after another night of unrest in Belfast that saw five arrests and a police officer injured.
Northern Ireland police said the violence there was fueled by pro-British loyalist paramilitaries.
In England, police have revealed that almost 500 people have now been arrested for their alleged involvement in the riots, and a judge in Liverpool, north-west England, has jailed several others for their involvement.
The unrest, first sparked by a July 29 knife attack that killed three children, has seen attacks on mosques and migrant-related facilities, along with police and other targets.
Officials blamed misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator for fueling the disorder.
“It’s important that we don’t let it down here,” Starmer told media when he visited a mosque and met with community leaders in Solihull, western England.
Starmer credited “police deployed in numbers in the right places providing reassurance to communities” for helping to quell the unrest overnight.
Wednesday night turned out to be mostly peaceful.
Instead of a far-right rally at dozens of sites linked to immigrant support services for which the police had prepared, thousands of protesters against racism and fascism staged peaceful demonstrations.
They gathered in cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.
“Whose street? Our street!” thousands chanted in Walthamstow, northeast London, where hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters joined the rally amid a heavy police presence.
In a post on X, London Mayor Sadiq Khan thanked the “thousands of Londoners who stood up against racism last night” as well as the “heroic police who are working to keep Londoners safe”.
Although the event in Walthamstow was peaceful, the capital’s Metropolitan Police said on Thursday that officers were “urgently investigating” the video that was filmed there.
In it, the now-suspended Labor councilor told the crowd that far-right rioters needed to have their “throats cut”. London’s Metropolitan Police subsequently released a statement saying a man in his 50s had been arrested.
