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A fresh outbreak of violence broke out in Rotherham on Sunday afternoon after dozens of people were arrested in clashes with police in towns and cities across England on Saturday.
A far-right protest in a South Yorkshire town turned violent when masked protesters stormed a hotel believed to be being used to detain asylum seekers.
The protest began hours earlier but escalated when the crowd began throwing debris and bottles at police. Footage posted online showed a trash bin being set on fire outside the hotel and protesters smashing their way inside.
This is the latest disruption after several nights of unrest. activated by The murder of three young girls in the Lancashire town of Southport on Monday came hours after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned that “violence by small groups of thugs” would be met with the full force of the law.
The protests were the most widespread outbreak of far-right violence in Britain in years and were fuelled by a series of Islamophobic and anti-immigrant disinformation spread by far-right influencers on social media since the Southport mass stabbings.
More than 100 people were arrested on Saturday following violent gatherings in several towns and cities, including Bristol, Blackpool, Hull and Liverpool, according to multiple police forces in the region.
Judges have considered keeping courts open overnight to clear a backlog of cases, as they did after the 2011 riots that led to thousands of arrests and indictments.
In Bolton, Greater Manchester, police issued a dispersal order on Sunday afternoon as hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters gathered in town hall square.
Rockets were thrown as tensions escalated and protests spread across the town centre, with the two sides facing off as police tried to separate them.
About 300 protesters marched through Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire on Sunday afternoon before breaking through police cordons in the city centre and throwing objects including slate and plastic bottles.
Starmer held emergency talks with ministers this weekend to discuss the riots by far-right agitators. He said freedom of speech and rioting were “two very different things” and labelled those involved as “extremists”.
The prime minister said the government backed police to “take whatever action is necessary” to keep Britain’s streets safe following attacks on officers, disruption to local businesses and what he said were attempts to sow hatred by intimidating communities.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council said it had deployed 4,000 extra police officers across the country to deal with any outbreaks of violence.
South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard called the scenes in Rotherham “brutal thuggery targeting some of the most vulnerable in our society”.
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly said there was no “justifiable reason or justification” for the violence in Rotherham. “Everyone should condemn this act and those involved should be prepared to face the full weight of the law,” he posted on social media site X.
