Worst far-right violence should be treated as terrorism, says ex-police chief

The worst of the far-right violence seen in England this weekend should be treated as terrorism, a prominent former police chief has said, amid warnings over a new wave of unrest targeting migration lawyers.

Police have made 378 arrests since the violence broke out last week, with rioters setting fire to a library, looting shops and storming hotels housing asylum seekers.

A far-right-led mob tried to set fire to the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham on Sunday while people were inside. Some masked rioters hurled pieces of wood, bottles and chairs, and sprayed fire extinguishers at police officers, 12 of whom were injured.

Related: Why are people rioting across England and how many are involved?

Neil Basu, Britain’s former head of counter-terrorism, said he believed the attack should be treated as an act of terrorism as he condemned the rioters as “bullies and cowards”.

“Trying to set ablaze a building with people inside, whom you have made clear you detest, is an act of violence against people and property with a racial cause designed to intimidate a section of the public – be it Muslims or asylum seekers,” he said.

“Not only does it fit the definition of terrorism, it is terrorism. It’s nothing short of an attempt at a modern-day lynching and the people who did it should be facing life imprisonment, not a five-year sentence for violent disorder.”

Basu’s comments came as:

• Australia, Nigeria, Malaysia and Indonesia issued travel alerts to their nationals living in or visiting the UK, warning them to stay away from demonstrations.

• Amanda Pritchard, the chief executive of NHS England, warned the riots have made many of the health service’s multicultural workforce feel “afraid and unwelcome” and the Royal College of Nursing called on ministers to ensure that anyone who targets nurses “pays a very heavy price”.

• Ministers announced plans to introduce more than 500 new prison places over the next month to help cope with an influx of accused rioters expected to be held on remand.

• The prime minister’s spokesperson criticised comments by Elon Musk after the X owner posted that “civil war is inevitable” in response to a video showing riots in Liverpool.

• MPs and 60 anti-racist and migrants’ rights organisations called for parliament to be recalled to address the violence and “to ensure that all people and communities of colour are protected”.

Keir Starmer has rejected the calls, while the Northern Ireland assembly will be recalled later this week to discuss violent scenes after several businesses were attacked at an anti-immigration protest in Belfast on Saturday.

The prime minister announced on Monday that a “standing army” of specialist police officers was being assembled to crack down on rioting as he called for the perpetrators to be named and shamed.

He vowed to “ramp up criminal justice” after an emergency Cobra meeting was called in the wake of the disorder that erupted after the killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport last Monday.

Families gathered at a vigil in Southport a week on from the murders of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar as children placed flowers and heart-shaped balloons in front of the Atkinson arts centre. One child who was stabbed in the attack remained in hospital and all other patients had been discharged, a spokesperson for Merseyside police said.

Several suspects involved in the riots that followed the killings faced charges in court on Monday as the National Police Chiefs’ Council warned that the number of arrests was expected to rise each day.

There are fears that unrest could continue to spread after a list of solicitors’ firms and advice agencies were shared as targets for gatherings in the coming days.

A message believed to have been widely shared on chat groups lists addresses for immigration law specialists and advice organisations across England and invites people to “mask up” if they go.

Tell Mama, a group monitoring Islamophobia in the UK, said it had alerted counter-terrorism police to the “far-right threats on Telegram that seek to target immigration solicitors and refugee services” in more than 30 locations across the country on Wednesday. The Labour MP Stella Creasy said she was looking into a potential target in her east London constituency.

There was more unrest on Monday night, this time in Plymouth. Six people were arrested following disorder in the city centre, and several officers suffered minor injuries in the violence, Devon and Cornwall police said. The windows of a police van were also smashed .

Supt Russ Dawe said “several officers” had been injured in Plymouth and arrests had been made “for a range of public order offences and assaults”.

He said: “Specialist officers were deployed to the Guildhall in the city centre at around 3.30pm today. During the evening, we’ve seen levels of violence across the city, and several officers have sustained injuries.

“I would like to reassure the community that we are fully resourced at this time with a strong police presence. Violence will not be tolerated, hate will not be tolerated, and we continue to work with our partners to keep the people of Plymouth safe.”

The Law Society of England and Wales president, Nick Emmerson, condemned the violence that has already taken place, and said the organisation has “serious concerns about the safety and wellbeing of our members” after the list was shared giving “targets for further protest and violence this week”.

Basu, who was the head of counter-terrorism from 2018 to 2021, said the organisers of the protests should also face punishment.

“We overestimate the intelligence of thugs. They don’t think about the consequences of their actions until it’s too late, but jail a few and the others will run back under cover. They are bullies and cowards,” he said.

“Their criminal puppet masters, the organisers, those who encourage, have to be dealt with too. They are also bullies and cowards.”

Police believe that violence has been the primary aim of those organising the series of far-right led gatherings in the last week.

The chief constable of Essex police, BJ Harrington, who is the national lead for public order, said: “They are saying they are English patriots and protesting against immigration, but they are intent on thuggery and violence and they do not care about the communities they claim to care about.”

He said the groups “masquerade as protesters”, before adding: “What they say and do is quite to the contrary. They are attacking police and the fabric of communities. It’s not protest, it is thuggery.”

Harrington was a public order commander in the Metropolitan police when the 2011 riots erupted in London before spreading across England.

Asked if the violence this week was as serious as in 2011, Harrington said: “The implications of it, yes; we have communities across the country in fear and have seen property damage. The scale is not the same. Our response is faster and swifter.”

South Yorkshire police, who are leading the investigation into the Rotherham hotel attack, said the case was being dealt with as “mass violent disorder”.

A spokesperson for counter-terrorism policing said acts of violence, even if fuelled by hatred, do not necessarily meet the definition of terrorism. They added: “The racist and anti-immigration attitudes that we have seen both on our streets and online in recent days have no place in recognising the loss felt by families in Southport.

“We continue to bring our specialist capabilities to both the investigation of the incident in Southport and to supporting policing colleagues across the country as they respond to the violent disorder we have seen.”

Additional reporting by Rajeev Syal and Denis Campbell