LONDON
The U.K. government said on Tuesday that 6,000 specialist police officers were ready to deal with far-right rioting.
The unrest broke out last week on July 30 after three children were killed in a stabbing spree at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.
Riots have since flared up in several cities and towns, leading to hundreds of arrests.
Justice minister Heidi Alexander told BBC Radio 4 yesterday that the government had freed up an extra 500 prison places and drafted in 6,000 specialist police officers to deal with the ongoing violence.
“We will make sure that anyone who is given a custodial sentence as a result of the riots and disorder, there will be a prison place waiting for them,” she said.
Mobs threw bricks and flares, attacked police, burnt and looted shops, smashed the windows of cars and homes and targeted at least two hotels housing asylum seekers in a number of cities at the weekend.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Aug. 5 convened and emergency meeting of ministers and police chiefs to discuss the unrest.
The government will “ramp up criminal justice” to ensure that “sanctions are swift”, Starmer told the media after the meeting.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said 378 people had so far been arrested and that others would be “brought to justice.”
Clashes broke out in Southport, the day after three young girls were killed and five more children critically injured during the knife attack there.
False rumours initially spread on social media saying the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales. U.K. media reported that his parents are from Rwanda, which has very few Muslims.
That has not stopped mosques from being targeted by rioters.
The government has offered new emergency security to Islamic places of worship.
The Prime Minister warned rioters on Aug. 4 that they would “regret” participating in England’s worst disorder in 13 years.
Interior minister Yvette Cooper told the BBC on Aug. 5 that “there will be a reckoning.”
Cooper also said that social media put a “rocket booster” under the violence.
Starmer stressed that “criminal law applies online as well as offline.”
Yesterday, Alexander criticised Elon Musk, owner of X, after he claimed “civil war” in the U.K. was “inevitable”.
“I think it is deeply irresponsible. I think everyone should be appealing for calm,” she said.
Police have blamed the violence on people associated with the now-defunct English Defence League, a far-right Islamophobic organisation founded 15 years ago, whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.
The rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner “Enough is Enough”.