SOLIHALL: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged on Thursday not to relax efforts to halt far-right riots in British cities after predicting street violence would not materialise overnight.
The British leader said that while Wednesday evening was largely calm, he would hold another emergency meeting of senior ministers and police leaders on Thursday to plan for potential problems in the “coming days”.
He also said the criminal justice system would continue to “work swiftly” to convict those arrested during a week of near-nightly riots across England and Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, judges in Liverpool, northeast England, have jailed several other perpetrators of the violence, which saw mosques and other migrant-related sites attacked, along with police and other targets.
“It is important that we don’t abandon this place,” Starmer told reporters as he visited a mosque and met community leaders in Solihull, western England.
“That’s why this afternoon I’m having another meeting with law enforcement and senior police officers to make sure we reflect on last night and plan for the future,”
Starmer credited the “large number of police deployed in the right places to reassure the community” that helped quell the unrest overnight.
Instead of rumors of far-right rallies at dozens of locations linked to migrant services, thousands of anti-racism and anti-fascist protesters took to the streets.
They gathered in large numbers, holding rallies in cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.
“Whose streets are ours!” thousands chanted in Walthamstow, northeast London, where hundreds of Palestinian supporters took part in a rally under police watch.
However, Northern Ireland suffered another night of chaos, the fourth in a row.
Five people were arrested and one police officer was injured during the chaos in Belfast.
The UK government has deployed 6,000 specialist police officers across the UK to deal with potential terror hotspots after far-right social media outlets called for attacks on migrant-related sites.
The violence was sparked by misinformation circulating on social media about a suspect who carried out a knife attack on children on July 29 that left three children dead.
London Metropolitan Police Chief Mark Rowley, who ordered thousands of officers to take to the streets of the capital on Wednesday, said he was “very pleased” with the way police and local communities responded to the riots.
“I think the show of force from the police and, frankly, the show of solidarity from the communities working together can overcome the challenges that we're seeing,” he told UK radio.
Rowley noted that there have been fewer arrests because of “some local criminals” acting anti-socially in certain areas, but fears of “far-right unrest have diminished.”
On Thursday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan thanked “the brave police force that works around the clock” and “those who peacefully demonstrated to show that London stands united against racism and Islamophobia.”
“And for the far-right who are still committed to sowing hatred and division, you are not welcome here,” he added on Channel X.
Courts began handing down jail sentences for people linked to the unrest on Wednesday as authorities try to prevent fresh unrest.
The unrest, Britain's worst since the riots in London in 2011, has led to hundreds of arrests, at least 120 charges and prompted several countries to issue travel warnings to the UK.
London police said Thursday that officers had arrested 10 more people overnight, a week after protests outside Downing Street in Westminster turned violent.
Rowley, who took part in the early-morning raid, said those arrested were “not protesters, patriots or good citizens.”
“They are thugs and criminals,” he said, adding that most had been convicted of weapons possession, violence, drug use and other serious offences.
The riots broke out after three girls, aged nine, seven and six, were killed and five others were seriously injured in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.
False rumors have been circulating on social media that the perpetrators were Muslim refugees.
The suspect was later identified as Axel Rudacubana, 17, born in Wales.
British media reported that his parents were Rwandans, a population predominantly Christian.
