Minister: government prepared for ‘eventuality’ of further unrest as list of 30 targets circulates
Asked specifically about suggestions that up to 30 locations were expected to be targets for far-right demonstrations and violence this evening, a government minister has said they need to be “prepared for the eventuality that there may be further unrest and violence.”
Speaking earlier on Sky News, Jim McMahon said:
Clearly we need to be prepared for the eventuality that there may be further unrest and violence. But we of course don’t want it to happen.
We want people to heed the warnings that have been issued. We want people to see the arrests and the charging decisions that have already been made to say that if people do go out and they intend to cause trouble, or they incite other people to cause trouble, they can expect the full force of the law.
Because in the end all of us have the right to live in a community without fear of violence or harassment or intimidation.
Police forces were preparing for potential violence on Wednesday as they monitor reports of at least 30 possible gatherings. A list of solicitors’ firms and advice agencies has been shared in chat groups as possible targets for gatherings, with the message inviting people to “mask up” if they attend.
Tell Mama, a group monitoring Islamophobia in the UK, said it has alerted police and counter-terrorism officials to the “far-right threats”.
The Law Society of England and Wales described such gatherings as a “direct assault on our legal profession”, while Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said threats against solicitors are “unacceptable” and those making them will “join the hundreds of others who have already been arrested by police within the last week”.
Overnight, after a second meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee which the prime minister attended, Keir Starmer said “Obviously it’s a difficult situation with disorder going on in a number of different places at the same time, but that is precisely why I held my second Cobra meeting today to coordinate the response and to get the assurance that I want and need that we do have adequate police in place, that we are able to cope with this disorder.”
More than 400 people have been arrested in connection with the riots and disorder around the country since the Southport stabbings last week, with the number expected to rise in the coming days.
Key events
Humza Yousaf: riots cast doubt on whether the future for his family remains in the UK
Libby Brooks
The former first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, has said that the racist and Islamophobic of recent days have made him question whether it is safe for his family to remain in the UK.
He told the Newsagents podcast yesterday evening: “You cut me open, I’m as about as Scottish as you come … but the truth of the matter is, I don’t know whether the future for me and my wife and my three children is going to be here in Scotland, or the UK, or indeed in Europe and the West, because I have for some time really worried about the rise of Islamophobia.”
Yousaf said that, while politicians across parties in Scotland had told a more positive story of immigration than in England, given the country’s struggles with depopulation, “don’t let any of your viewers or listeners think that I’m suggesting that Scotland is immune from racism or Islamophobia, it absolutely is not.
“I have been on the receiving end of many a death threat from Scotland, and many people in Scotland, I’m afraid, have been charged because of the abuse that they have thrown my way, because of my race or because of my religion”
Yousaf, who became Scotland’s first Muslim leader when he was elected FM in 2023, also highlighted “institutional Islamophobia” at Westminster, saying:
We have sitting in the current crop of MPs, a former home secretary who could write in one of the biggest selling broadsheet newspapers in the country that the Islamists are taking over. Nigel Farage, who has called Muslims, ‘a fifth column’. Example after example of where the language of the far-right driven by Islamophobia has now become institutionalised in our politics.
Chief executive of Conversation Over Borders, a national charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers, is calling for people to send in welcoming notes which will be delivered to asylum seekers staying at initial hotel accommodation, PA Media reports.
Colette Batten-Turner said since putting the call out the charity received 150 messages by the next day, adding: “We are getting more and more messages come in by the second.”
Batten-Turner said: “People are very, very afraid, even in places not yet targeted by the far-right violence. The voices of far-right extremism, that’s… really not representative of most people in the UK.
“My message to anyone living in initial accommodation hotels and newly arrived to the UK or feel affected, is … there are so many more people who want to spread a message of welcome and solidarity and compassion, and who will welcome those people to the UK, and feel the UK is a better place because they’re here. We will make this a safe place for them to be, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the moment.”
Former chief inspector of constabulary Sir Thomas Winsor has criticised politicians for talking about two-tier policing, saying it deliberately “increases a perception of unfairness.”
Speaking on LBC with Nick Ferrari, PA Media reports he said: “The policing of public assemblies, marches, everything is a function of the operational independence of the police, and they have to assess day by day, hour by hour, the threat, harm and risk of individual circumstances.
“There is a fundamental difference, for example, between marching for Gaza and being very noisy about it and violent disorder that we see now.
“On the two-tier policing point, I remind listeners of the constable’s oath every police officer takes. This oath is to police with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, to uphold fundamental rights and accord equal respect to all people according to law, and that’s what they do.
“And when people, politicians and others, talk repeatedly, and these are their talking points, and they know what they’re doing about distrust of the police and two-tier policing, over and over again – that, in itself, increases a perception of unfairness which is not correct.”
Winsor served between October 2012 and March 2022 as chief inspector of constabulary.
Six people have been charged with violent disorder in Plymouth on Monday night which saw police officers injured and two members of the public taken to hospital, PA Media reports.
Devon and Cornwall police said the four adults and two 17-year-old boys have been charged under section 2 of the Public Order Act 1986. They are due to appear at Plymouth magistrates court today.
While shadow police minister Matt Vickers was broadly supportive of the government over their handling of the far-right violence and civil unrest of the last few days, he did offer some criticism directly of prime minister Keir Starmer.
Twice during the interview he alluded to Starmer not having commented on armed youths appearing on the streets of Birminham.
During the interview, Vickers said:
You know what, you can be concerned about immigration, you can be concerned about damage to a place of worship, you can become rightly concerned about all those things. It does not give you licence and freedom to go out there, arm yourself, carry a knife, abuse people in the street, assault people in the street, hurl things at police officers, burn people’s cars, damage people’s homes. You have no right to do that.
However he also at one point said:
We need the prime minister and the government to succeed in tackling this issue. There’s concerns out there about the fact that it took a week to get a cobra meeting together, so that agencies could start coordinating and ensuring we had the right people in the right place.
We’ve seen question marks about two-tier policing. Whatever Keir Starmer wants to say about who is responsible and their motivations, those question are for him, you know? There was comment that he didn’t comment on, he didn’t make any mention, of people being armed in Birmingham. Well, that’s questions for him.
He later returned to the theme, adding “I’ve said, you know, that people have commented on the fact that the prime minister Kier Starmer has said things on certain parties … the law will be upheld by our British police officers regardless of what politicians say. I wouldn’t mind seeing what Kier Starmer has to say about what went on in Birmingham.”
During his Sky News appearance this morning, shadow policing minister Matt Vickers rejected the claim by some that there was so-called two-tier policing in England. He told viewers:
My view is whoever you are, whatever your motivation is, whichever side of any debate you might be on, the law will be upheld by our British police officers regardless of what politicians say.
The police are doing the right thing. The courts are doing the right thing, regardless of who you are, regardless of your motivations, you are going to be held to account.
Vickers said he wished that more accurate information was being distributed about what was happening inside the justice system. He said:
It would be helpful, actually, for more of the public to see what went through the courts in response to what had gone on in Middlesbrough [during the unrest]
So, two people go through the courts yesterday. One, being a person who turned up to protest actually, they’d seen this stuff online, gone down there to get involved in all this violence and disorder, and they deserve what’s coming.
And at the same time, I saw that somebody who turned up to counter protest, armed with a knife, was feeling the full force of the law. And that’s exactly what should happen.
Also on the media round this morning has been Matt Vickers, the recently appointed Conservative opposition shadow minister for policing. Speaking to Sky News, Vickers was broadly supportive of the new Labour government’s handling of the situation. He told viewers:
I welcome the fact that 400 people have been arrested. I welcome the fact we’ve got courts sitting around the clock to make sure that people feel the full force of the law as quickly as possible. It’s the right thing to do. I wish the government well and hope that they succeed in bringing this thing to a close.
I think our police officers out there on the front line are incredibly brave. Incredibly determined, incredibly committed. Police officers doing what they do, day in day out, putting themselves in harm’s way to protect us. They do not deserve the abuse that’s going on out there. And it is right those people responsible will face the full force of the law.
He unequivocally condemned those involved in violence, adding:
I think what we’ve seen in the last few weeks has been absolutely horrendous with huge consequences for communities across the country. We’ve seen people’s properties damaged. We’ve seen people assaulted. Absolutely terrible scenes with huge impacts for the community.
Minister: it is a ‘tiny minority’ of people ‘who don’t want it to be a normal day’
Jim McMahon, minister of state for housing, communities and local government, has said that the vast majority of Britons will be going about their everyday life today, but that “there are a tiny minority of people who don’t want it to be a normal day.”
He told viewers of Sky News:
There are a tiny minority of people who don’t want it to be a normal day. Who will want to cause disruption, and who will want to cause violence as a way of progressing their argument.
There is no legitimate reason to go out there and to cause disruption, to cause violence, in the way that we have seen. That is not what people want.
The vast majority of British people are going about their every day business, and want peace, and want for that to be respected.
Minister: ‘we stand by police, prosecutors and courts’ to deliver justice ‘swiftly and efficiently’
Speaking on Sky News, Jim McMahon, minister of state for housing, communities and local government, has said the number of police being deployed was an “operational matter”.
Asked whether there had been discussions about mobilising 100% of police who have been trained to deal with riots in the light of suggestions that multiple locations would be targeted by far right groups on Wednesday evening, he said:
Of course the police will do an operational assessment of the threat that has been made, and the intelligence that they have. And they will deploy officers based on that intelligence. It’s for the police to make that operational decision.
What we have said as a government is that we stand absolutely with our police force. We stand with our prosecutors. And we stand with the courts. To make sure that those who do go over the line are dealt with swiftly and efficiently by the system.
Because in the end, people want to see that justice is delivered to those who seek to disrupt and cause harm.
McMahon is Labour MP for Oldham West, Chadderton & Royton.
Minister: government prepared for ‘eventuality’ of further unrest as list of 30 targets circulates
Asked specifically about suggestions that up to 30 locations were expected to be targets for far-right demonstrations and violence this evening, a government minister has said they need to be “prepared for the eventuality that there may be further unrest and violence.”
Speaking earlier on Sky News, Jim McMahon said:
Clearly we need to be prepared for the eventuality that there may be further unrest and violence. But we of course don’t want it to happen.
We want people to heed the warnings that have been issued. We want people to see the arrests and the charging decisions that have already been made to say that if people do go out and they intend to cause trouble, or they incite other people to cause trouble, they can expect the full force of the law.
Because in the end all of us have the right to live in a community without fear of violence or harassment or intimidation.
Police forces were preparing for potential violence on Wednesday as they monitor reports of at least 30 possible gatherings. A list of solicitors’ firms and advice agencies has been shared in chat groups as possible targets for gatherings, with the message inviting people to “mask up” if they attend.
Tell Mama, a group monitoring Islamophobia in the UK, said it has alerted police and counter-terrorism officials to the “far-right threats”.
The Law Society of England and Wales described such gatherings as a “direct assault on our legal profession”, while Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said threats against solicitors are “unacceptable” and those making them will “join the hundreds of others who have already been arrested by police within the last week”.
Overnight, after a second meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee which the prime minister attended, Keir Starmer said “Obviously it’s a difficult situation with disorder going on in a number of different places at the same time, but that is precisely why I held my second Cobra meeting today to coordinate the response and to get the assurance that I want and need that we do have adequate police in place, that we are able to cope with this disorder.”
More than 400 people have been arrested in connection with the riots and disorder around the country since the Southport stabbings last week, with the number expected to rise in the coming days.
Welcome and opening summary …
Good morning, and welcome to our ongoing coverage of UK politics and the far-right violence and civil unrest that has been seen across England and Northern Ireland over the last few days. Here are your headlines:
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Police says they are prepared for planned unrest by “hateful and divisive groups” as they monitor reports of at least 30 possible gatherings and threats against immigration law specialists.
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About 100 people have already been charged in connection with the unrest, and charges continued to be brought on Tuesday night, with defendants expected in court on Wednesday. Overnight, two 38-year-old men were charged with violent disorder in connection with disturbances in Southport and Liverpool.
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Police said they are investigating several racially motivated hate crimes in Belfast on Tuesday evening, including an attack on a young boy by a group of youths.
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After a second emergency Cobra meeting, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said “it’s a difficult situation with disorder going on in a number of different places at the same time, but that is precisely why I held my second Cobra meeting today to coordinate the response and to get the assurance that I want and need that we do have adequate police in place, that we are able to cope with this disorder.”
It is Martin Belam with you for the next few hours. You can get in touch at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
