Thousands of anti-racism protesters rallied in Britain on Saturday to protest recent riots following a stabbing attack in Southport that left three children dead, blamed on far-right militants.
Crowds gathered in London, Glasgow in Scotland, Belfast in Northern Ireland, Manchester and many other English towns and cities as fears of violent confrontations with anti-immigration agitators failed to materialise.
Similar events occurred on Wednesday night, when right-wing rallies planned across the country failed to take place. Instead, people attended gatherings organised by the Stand Up to Racism advocacy group.
By that time, more than a dozen English towns and cities – and also Belfast – had been gripped by anti-immigrant unrest, following a fatal stabbing incident on July 29 that was wrongly linked on social media to a Muslim immigrant.
Rioters targeted immigration-related mosques and hotels, as well as police, vehicles and other landmarks.
Recent nights have been largely peaceful in England’s towns and cities, raising hopes among authorities that nearly 800 arrests and the large number of people already in jail have prevented further violence.
Despite the relief, British media reported on Saturday that Prime Minister Keir Starmer had cancelled plans to go on holiday next week to keep the focus on the crisis.
‘no to racism’
In Northern Ireland, where unrest has continued since last weekend, police said they were investigating a suspected racially motivated hate crime overnight.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said a mosque in Newtownards, east Belfast, was petrol bombed and racist graffiti was sprayed on the building on Saturday morning.
It said a petrol bomb hurled at the property failed to ignite.
PSNI Chief Inspector Keith Hutchinson said: “This is being treated as a racially motivated hate crime and I want to send a strong message to those who carried it out that this type of activity will not be tolerated.”
There were also reports of damage to property and vehicles across Belfast overnight as overnight unrest continued.
According to the PSNI, although the unrest in Northern Ireland was sparked by events in England, it was also fuelled by pro-British loyalist paramilitaries who have their own agenda.
Around 5,000 anti-racism protesters rallied in Belfast on Saturday, with the protests “mostly without incident”, police said.
Fiona Doran, from the group United Against Racism, a co-organiser of the gathering, said it showed that “Belfast is a welcoming city … that says no to racism, fascism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism or misogyny.”
‘Delivering justice’
In London, thousands of people gathered outside the offices of Brexit architect Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and then marched through the city centre accompanied by a large police presence.
They accuse Farage and other right-wing figures of helping fuel the riots through anti-immigrant rhetoric and conspiracy theories.
“It’s very important for black people and immigrants in this country to see us as white British people saying, ‘No, we’re not for this’,” attendee Phoebe Sewell, 32, from London, told AFP.
Jeremy Snelling, 64, also from London, said he came because “I don’t like right-wing people claiming streets in my name.”
He accused Reform Party founder Farage of “contributing” to creating a volatile atmosphere.
“I think he’s harmful and he’s dangerous,” Snelling said.
Meanwhile, the appearance of suspected rioters in court continued on Saturday as well.
Prosecution service chief Stephen Parkinson said hundreds of alleged participants in the violence would soon face justice as a “new phase” of “more serious” cases was being run through the system.
He warned that those found guilty could face up to 10 years in prison for the most serious offence of rioting.
“This is not about revenge, it is about justice,” Parkinson said in comments published in the Sunday Times.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)