LONDON (Reuters) – Anti-immigration protesters broke hotel windows and set bins on fire in northern England on Sunday in the latest wave of unrest that has presented a major test to new Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government.
Violent protests involving hundreds of anti-immigration protesters have erupted in towns and cities across Britain after three girls were killed in a knife attack at a children’s dance class in Southport in northwest England last week.
The murders were seized on by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim groups as misinformation spread that the suspected attacker was an immigrant and a radical Islamist. Police have said the suspect was born in Britain. Media reports have said his family is Christian.
Violent disorder broke out in cities around the country on Saturday, including Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester, resulting in dozens of arrests as shops and businesses were vandalised and looted and several police were injured, police statements said. The government has promised tough action against people taking part in the violence.
On Sunday, hundreds of anti-immigration protesters gathered by a hotel that has been used to house asylum seekers near Rotherham, northern England.
The protesters threw bricks at police and broke several hotel windows, a Reuters witness said, before setting bins on fire. Dozens of other protesters gathered by another such hotel in Aldershot, southern England.
In both Rotherham and the north-west town of Lancaster, there were anti-racist counterprotesters, with police keeping the two groups apart.
As protests began in Bolton, near Manchester, police said that a dispersal notice had been authorised to give officers extra powers to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Chief Inspector Natasha Evans of Greater Manchester Police said police there would continue to mount an increased police presence to deal with any incidents.
The weekend’s protests followed several days of disorder.
Starmer, a former chief prosecutor who took office a month ago after his Labour Party won a decision election victory over the long-ruling Conservatives, has said the unrest is the result of deliberate actions by the far-right, co-ordinated by a “group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence,” rather than legitimate protest.
Interior minister Yvette Cooper said on Saturday said that “those who engage in criminal disorder face the strongest possible penalties”.
The last time violent protests erupted across Britain was in 2011 when thousands of people took to the streets after police shot dead a Black man in London.
(Reporting by Suzanne Plunkett in Aldershot, Belinda Jiao in Bolton and other Reuters photographers; Writing by Alistair Smout; Editing by Jane Merriman and Frances Kerry)
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