Planned protests begin across UK after ‘unforgivable’ violence in Sunderland

Riot police have been deployed as planned protests have begun across Britain, after a night of “unforgivable” violence in Sunderland.

The far right has drawn condemnation from MPs across the political spectrum after disorder in London, Manchester, Southport and Hartlepool over the past three days.

There was further violence in Sunderland on Friday, where a police station was looted and a Citizens Advice Bureau office was set alight.

A priest at Sunderland Minster said yobs tried to smash a gravestone to use as missiles during widespread violence in the city, adding that they were guilty of “an act of sacrilege”.

The riots came after the killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Merseyside on Monday.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, from Lancashire, is accused of the attack, but false claims spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.

Greater Manchester Police said a dispersal notice had been authorised for the city centre and Merseyside Police said greater stop and search powers had been granted for officers to deal with planned demonstrations on Saturday.

Officers also mounted a significant security operation in Belfast city centre, after a small group of anti-Islamic protesters gathered at the front of City Hall, chanting “Islam Out”.

Police in riot gear were deployed in the Northern Ireland capital as a small number of fireworks were thrown amid tense exchanges between the group and an anti-racism rally.

Around 150 people carrying St George’s flags shouting “you’re not English any more” and “paedo Muslims off our street” were greatly outnumbered in Leeds by hundreds of counter-protesters shouting “Nazi scum off our streets”.

Police in Stoke-on-Trent said they were aware of “pockets of disorder” and bricks were reportedly thrown at officers in the city.

Sunderland Central Labour MP Lewis Atkinson said a link could be drawn between the disorder in his constituency on Friday and the ashes of the English Defence League (EDL), which was founded by Tommy Robinson , whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon.

The EDL has disbanded but its supporters remain active, and Mr Atkinson said evidence suggested a Nazi offshoot of the group was involved in the violence in his constituency on Friday, in which a police station was torched and a mosque attacked.

On Saturday it was not possible to search “Tommy Robinson” on TikTok, and the social media platform instead showed the message: “This phrase may be associated with behaviour or content that violates our guidelines.”

Northumbria Police Chief Superintendent Mark Hall said four officers were injured during the violence in the city and 10 people have been arrested.

He told reporters that those involved in the disorder should “expect to be met with the full force of the law”, adding: “This was not a protest, this was unforgivable violence and disorder.”

Chairman of Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, Qari Asim, said the Muslim community is “deeply worried and anxious about the planned protests by the far right groups across the country”.

He said: “This intimidation and violence is the inevitable, devastating, outcome of rising Islamophobia that has been enabled to fester on social media, in parts of the mainstream media and by some populist leaders.”

Meanwhile, Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick said “elements of the far right” appear to be involved in the rioting while fellow contender Priti Patel denounced the “thuggery” and said MPs should unite in condemnation.

Mr Atkinson said he was “really sad” for Sunderland after a group of “racists” descended on the city on Friday and attacked police, setting a police station and two cars on fire and targeting a mosque.

He added: “A night of idiots will not prevent us from building.”

Asked how the disorder had happened, Mr Atkinson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that protests had been suggested by people in a number of social media groups in the wake of the Southport stabbings.

He said: “The far right, for example Stephen Yaxley Lennon, picked up on those and started promoting those and encouraging known far right individuals to join.”

Individuals who were involved with the EDL are “still out there” and need to be kept under surveillance, he said.

An ⁠extra 70 prosecutors will be drafted in on standby this weekend to charge people who set out to cause violent disorder as the authorities prepare to deal with dozens of demonstrations planned over the next two days.

Campaign group Hope Not Hate has identified more than 30 events taking place.

Mr Jenrick said “if there is a case” for proscribing the EDL it should be “considered”, when asked by the BBC.

Leadership contender and former home secretary Ms Patel demanded Parliament be recalled over the violence and criticised the Government response, saying: “Saying the nation is ‘braced for disorder’ is not only breathtakingly complacent, but both troubling and inadequate.

“The Government is now in danger of appearing to be swept away with events rather than maintaining control of them.”

Thousands of people had turned out to pay their respects to Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, at a vigil in Southport on Tuesday.

Violence later erupted outside a mosque in the town and 53 police officers and three police dogs were. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer later condemned “thugs” who had travelled to the town to cause unrest.

The unrest poses the biggest challenge yet of Sir Keir’s premiership, evoking the scale of public disorder last seen during the 2011 riots.

There were a series of riots in August 2011 in cities and towns across England, which started in Tottenham Hale, north east London, after the killing of Mark Duggan, who was shot dead by police on August 4.

On Wednesday more than 100 protesters were arrested on Whitehall, where bottles and cans were thrown at police, while violence also broke out in Hartlepool, County Durham, and in Manchester.

On Thursday, Sir Keir announced a new “national” response to the disorder linking police forces across the country through shared intelligence and the expanded use of facial recognition.

On Friday, hundreds of people gathered in Keel Square in Sunderland, many of them draped in England flags, some of whom chanted support of Tommy Robinson, while others shouted insults about Islam.

Videos posted on social media appeared to show a fire at a city centre police office, which was marked permanently closed on Google Maps and was no longer listed on a police station finder on Northumbria Police’s website.

A mosque was targeted and separate footage on social media, said to have also been filmed in Sunderland, appeared to show a ­man with a swastika tattoo on his back.

Officers from Northumbria Police were “subjected to serious violence” and three were taken to hospital, the force said later.

Education Secretary and minister for women and equalities, and MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, Bridget Phillipson, posted on X, saying: “The scenes in our city centre tonight are shocking. We have seen unforgivable violence and thuggery.

“The criminals involved in this appalling disorder must be identified, prosecuted and punished with the full force of the law.”

Rudakubana is also charged with the attempted murders of yoga class instructor Leanne Lucas, businessman John Hayes and eight children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and with possession of a kitchen knife with a curved blade.

He was remanded to youth detention accommodation and will next appear in court in October.