Government warns that rioters ‘will pay the price’ as wave of violence sweeps UK

Rioters will “pay the price” for the wave of violent clashes that has spread across the UK, ministers warned on Saturday, after a day in which police battled rival groups of demonstrators in the worst outbreak of civil disorder in Britain for more than a decade.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper said the police would have the government’s full support to take the strongest possible action. “Criminal violence and disorder have no place on Britain’s streets,” she said.

“Anyone who gets involved in criminal disorder and violent thuggery on our streets will have to pay the price and they should expect there to be arrests, prosecutions, penalties, and the full force of the law including imprisonment and travel bans. There are consequences for breaking the law.”

The widespread nature of the clashes poses the first major challenge to Keir Starmer’s new government, which is now facing demands to introduce emergency powers to stop further violence and to recall parliament.

In the protests that spread across the nation, bricks were hurled at police officers in Stoke-on-Trent, fireworks were thrown amid tense exchanges between an anti-Islamic group and an anti-racism rally in Belfast, and windows of a hotel which has been used to house migrants were smashed in Hull, where three police officers were injured and four people arrested. Several officers were also injured during “serious disorder” in Liverpool city centre, where bricks, bottles and a flare were thrown and one officer hit on the head with a chair. Greater Manchester police said a dispersal notice had been authorised for the city centre and scuffles broke out as opposing groups faced each other in Nottingham’s Old Market Square with bottles and other items thrown from both sides.

About 150 people carrying St George’s Cross 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”. Skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and punks – in town for a festival – in Blackpool, with bottles and chairs being thrown.

The need for urgent political intervention was stressed by the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, Lord Walney, who told the Observer that new emergency powers may be needed to deal with the outbreaks of violence. “The system isn’t set up to deal with this rolling rabble rousing being fuelled by far-right actors,” he said.

“I think home office ministers maywant to look urgently at a new emergency framework – perhaps temporary in nature – that enables police to use the full powers of arrest to prevent people gathering where there is clear intent to fuel violent disorder.”

Keir Starmer held a meeting of senior ministers on Saturday in which he said police had been given full support to tackle extremists who were attempting “to sow hate by intimidating communities”. He also made it clear that the right to freedom of expression and the violent scenes over recent days were “two very different things”.

Last week’s riots were set off in the wake of the killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on Monday. Axel Rudakubana, 17, from Lancashire, is accused of the attack, but false claims were spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat. In the wake of these messages, far-right protesters – guided by social media – gathered in cities across the country.

A key factor in this spread of online disinformation involved Elon Musk’s decision to allow rightwing activists such as Tommy Robinson back onto his social media platform X, said Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope not Hate, the anti-fascism organisation. “The initial disinformation and anger was being perpetrated by individuals on Twitter, for example, that have been previously deplatformed,” he said. “And now they’ve been replatformed.”

Robinson was permanently banned from the platform (then called Twitter) in March 2018, then reinstated in November last year, after Musk bought it. “We hadn’t seen any significant numbers at any demonstrations since 2018,” Mulhall added.

An example of the danger posed by the misuse of social media was revealed in Stoke-on-Trent, where police were forced to deny there had been a stabbing there, countering claims made on social media. “There is growing speculation that a stabbing has taken place as a result of the disorder today. We can confirm this information is false and no stabbings have been reported to police or emergency responders, despite videos fuelling speculation on social media,” police said.

The danger of such intervention was stressed by Ben-Julian “BJ” Harrington, the National Police Chiefs Council lead for public order, who condemned social media disinformation as a cause of last week’s disorder.

He said: “We had reports today that two people had been stabbed by Muslims in Stoke – it’s just not true. There’s people out there, not even in this country, circulating and stoking up hatred, division and concerns in communities that they don’t care about, don’t know and don’t understand.”

Harrington, who was also the NPCC’s gold commander in charge of national strategy for Saturday’s disorder, said that “yobs and thugs and criminals” were responsible. “This isn’t about protests,” he said. “This is about violent disorder. This is about people who are descending into communities and causing damage – throwing bricks and bottles and things at cops who work within those communities.”

Forces across England brought officers back from leave to deploy an extra 130 police support units – about 2,000 officers, he revealed. “Of course there is a limited number of officers, and every one that is taken from a community is not out there solving burglaries.

Echoing concerns about the dangers of social media, shadow home secretary James Cleverly called for tech companies to be hauled into Downing Street to ensure they were acting to stop the spread of disinformation on their platforms. However, he was criticised for issuing a statement in which he said Starmer taking the knee had sent “completely the wrong message” to protesters, adding that there was “never a justification for disorder like this”.

There was also further condemnation of Nigel Farage’s role in inciting the violence with his comments about the Southport killings, in which he questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us” after the attack on Monday. Robert Jenrick, one of the favourites in the Tory leadership race, said that the Reform leader’s comments did not “make the situation better”.

Last week’s clashes spread four days ago, when more than 100 protesters were arrested on Whitehall, where bottles and cans were thrown at police, while violence also broke out in Hartlepool and in Manchester.

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

Then, on Friday, about 500 people, including some parents with their children, gathered in Sunderland city centre, responding to far-right social media posts to turn up and demonstrate. The gathering quickly descended into violence, with masked boys and men throwing missiles, including bricks, stones, beer barrels and scaffolding poles, at riot police.

Ten people were arrested and four policemen taken to hospital, one seriously injured. A police station was ransacked and a Citizens Advice Bureau set alight. By Saturday morning, the acrid smell of fire still hung in the air. Shoppers stopped to express their shock at what had happened, with hundreds of residents of all ages gathering on the city’s streets with brushes, litter pickers, buckets, bin bags and dust pans.

Sunderland Central Labour MP Lewis Atkinson said a link could be drawn between the disorder and the ashes of the English Defence League (EDL), which was founded by Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. The EDL has disbanded but its supporters remain active, and Atkinson said evidence suggested a Nazi offshoot of the group was involved in Friday’s violence.

A priest at Sunderland Minster said yobs tried to smash a gravestone to use as missiles during the disorder that gripped the city. “It’s an act of sacrilege to disturb someone’s gravestone,” said Rev Jacqui Tyson. “It’s also remarkably lacking in common sense – have you tried to pick up a gravestone?”