Met Police arrest ten suspects in Whitehall far-right disorder in dawn raids

The Met Police arrested ten more people accused of being involved in last week’s far-right disorder in Whitehall in a series of raids.

Bottles, flares, and other objects were thrown at officers as they attempted to tackle “unacceptable” scenes of far-right disorder on July 31 following the Southport stabbings.

More than 100 arrests were made for offences including violent disorder, assaults on police officers, possession of knives and offensive weapons and breach of protest conditions.

A week on, the force said it had arrested ten more people in raids on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Met chief Sir Mark Rowley joined officers as they carried out arrests in south London.

He said he expected many of those arrested would eventually be charged and end up in prison for their role in the chaotic scenes which left some officers injured.

“Over the last week dozens of officers have continued to investigate the violent disorder which broke out in Whitehall last Wednesday,” he said.

“They scoured thousands of hours of footage from body worn video, CCTV, and social media to identify those responsible for fuelling and committing the thuggish and violent behaviour we saw.

“Their efforts have resulted in a series of crucial arrests last night and in the early hours of this morning.

“What I want to make really clear is those we’ve arrested aren’t protestors, patriots or decent citizens. They’re thugs and criminals. Around 70% have previous convictions for weapon possession, violence, drugs and other serious offences.

“Some have football banning orders. These are violent people taking to the streets under the guise of protest to engage in disorder.”

The update came after fears of far-right violence in the capital on Wednesday night largely failed to materialise, with thousands of anti-racist demonstrators instead taking to the streets.

Around 1,300 public order officers were deployed on top of the thousands of Met officers already on duty.

Sir Mark has hailed the show of force, alongside the community response of protest against the far-right, as helping to quell any violence.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier, Sir Mark said: "I'm really pleased with how it went. We put thousands of officers on the streets and I think the show of force from the police and frankly, the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we've seen.

"It went off very peacefully last night. [There were] a couple of locations where some local criminals turned out and tried to create a bit of anti-social behaviour and we arrested a few of them, but it was a very successful night and the fears of some sort of extreme-right disorder were abated."

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