Over 400 far-right rioters in England arrested since disturbances broke out

Riots have spread across numerous cities and towns in England, and in Belfast in Northern Ireland, in the worst outbreak of civil disorder in Britain for 13 years.

Police have made 378 arrests since anti-immigrant and far-right unrest erupted after the killing of three young girls in Southport in north-west England last Monday.

Far-right mobs bayed “get them out” outside an asylum seeker hotel in Knowsley, hurling rocks, fireworks and other missiles.

A Home Office policy to house tens of thousands of asylum seekers in hotels has made them a soft and visible target – bins were set on fire outside Holiday Inn Express hotels housing asylum seekers.

The violence was sparked after a multiple stabbing stabbing at a Taylor Swift-inspired dance class in Southport on 29 July. Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were killed. Eight other children sustained knife wounds with five left in a critical condition. Two adults were also critically hurt.

Axel Rudakubana, 17, who was born in Cardiff and had been living in Banks, a village in Lancashire a few miles north of Southport, has been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder.

Before the suspect’s identity was confirmed, false claims proliferated online that he was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.

In the wake of these messages, members of the far right – guided by social media –gathered in towns and cities across the country. Counter-protests have also built up with clashes between opposing groups.

The UK home secretary Yvette Cooper said officers were still reviewing footage to identify “those throwing missiles, setting fires, looting shops, and attacking innocent motorists and passersby”.

Several suspects have already appeared in court charged with offences including violent disorder, affray, assault and burglary.

One judge described scenes of violence in Belfast as “absolutely disgraceful” as he refused bail to two men accused of taking part in disorder that followed an anti-immigration gathering in the city on Saturday.

Since 2020 however, the far-right organisation Britain First has been targeting asylum seeker hotels – barging in, banging on bedroom doors and demanding to know whether they were paying for their accommodation. The UK Home Office had to step up security at hotels.

After the Southpart stabbing last week, hundreds of rioters descended on the seaside town of Southport on Tuesday 30 July, where people were still grieving, barely 36 hours after the three girls were killed. More than 50 police officers were injured in the clashes, which targeted a mosque a short walk from the scene of the atrocity.

The next day, disturbances spread to London, Manchester in north-west England, Hartlepool in the north-east, and Aldershot in the south.

The disorder continued over the weekend with clashes on Saturday across England in Liverpool, Blackpool, Hull, Stoke-on-Trent, Leeds, Nottingham and Bristol, and also in Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Then rioters tried to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers in the South Yorkshire town of Rotherham, and similar copycat attacks took place in other towns.

UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, warned on Monday that anyone “whipping up violence online” would face the full force of the law.

Starmer chaired an emergency meeting with police chiefs and ministers on Monday morning following his televised address to the nation in which he vowed that rioters would “regret” engaging in “far-right thuggery”.

Several countries including Nigeria, Malaysia and Indonesia have issued safety warnings to their citizens in the UK due to the riots.

British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has played a part in the spread of online disinformation. Robinson, who is on holiday abroad, posted footage of the Rotherham hotel attack on X, saying: “When British people are ignored and labelled ‘far-right’ … something has to happen.”