U.K. Officials Express Relief After Far-Right Protests Fail to Materialize

LONDON — British officials on Thursday expressed relief and cautious optimism after far-right protests failed to materialize the previous night and thousands of anti-racism demonstrators took to the streets instead.

Authorities had been braced for further violence after anti-immigrant protests in previous days had descended into riots, fueled by disinformation about the fatal stabbing of three young children at a dance class in Southport, in northwestern England, on July 29.

But with around 6,000 officers on standby, Wednesday evening passed with little violence. Pockets of far-right protesters were easily outnumbered by anti-racism counterdemonstrations in several cities, including Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and London.

That raised hopes that law enforcement authorities had begun to regain control after riots over the previous weekend. Hundreds of people were arrested and dozens of police officers were injured in those outbreaks of violence, which saw rioters set cars on fire and target mosques and hotels housing asylum-seekers.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday that a repetition of that violence was largely avoided overnight because “we had police deployed, in numbers, in the right places giving reassurance to communities.”

Starmer, a former chief prosecutor, has pushed hard to ensure that people arrested during the riots were tried quickly in order to deter others from participating in future disorder.

On a visit to the West Midlands on Thursday, he said the sentencing a day earlier of a rioter to three years in prison had sent a “powerful message.”

Two more people who took part in rioting were jailed Thursday: John O’Malley, 43, and William Nelson Morgan, 69, were each sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for violent disorder.

But Starmer said it was important that there was no “let up” from the authorities, and that he planned to convene a meeting to reflect on the lessons learned from Wednesday night and to plan for days ahead.

Not everywhere was free of violence Wednesday night, however, and a small number of arrests were made. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, objects were thrown at the police, fires were lit and officers in riot gear were deployed.

But in London, Mark Rowley, commissioner of the city’s Metropolitan Police, described Wednesday as a “very successful night.”

“The show of force from police — and frankly the show of unity from communities — together defeated the challenges we have seen,” he said.

Efforts to combat calls on social media for violence could also have played a role. Both the government and the police had expressed concern about the use of messaging apps like Telegram by far-right groups intent on stoking disorder.

On Wednesday, Telegram said its moderators were removing channels and posts containing calls to violence. The company also said that it was using artificial intelligence tools and user reports “to ensure content that breaches Telegram’s terms is removed.”

Experts said that far-right sympathizers were raising questions and circulating conspiracy theories online Thursday about the low turnout the night before. Some people posting online claimed that warnings about potential trouble had been a false-flag operation by the government designed to embarrass the far right when it failed to materialize, according to Al Baker, the managing director of Prose Intelligence, a technology company that monitors Telegram channels.

Baker’s own interpretation of what happened Wednesday was that online support for far-right actions that night had not translated to real-world support on the streets.

The far right has evolved into “a movement built around online spaces and influencers, rather than organizers,” Baker said, and lacks “the central organizing force which might have orchestrated these things from beginning to end.”

He predicted, however, that far-right activists might try to “revive some of the momentum” and try again to organize.

Those fears were also echoed by Tiffany Lynch, acting national chair of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers. She told the BBC that it was “absolutely not” possible to say that the run of violence was now at an end.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .