LONDON (AFP) – Thousands of anti-racism demonstrators rallied across the United Kingdom (UK) on Saturday to protest recent rioting blamed on the far-right in the wake of the Southport knife attack that killed three children.
Crowds massed in London, Glasgow in Scotland, Belfast in Northern Ireland, Manchester and numerous other English towns and cities, as fears of violent confrontations with anti-immigration agitators failed to materialise.
It followed similar developments on Wednesday night, when anticipated far-right rallies up and down the country failed to materialise. Instead, people turned out for gatherings organised by the Stand Up To Racism advocacy group.
Up until that point, more than a dozen English towns and cities – and Belfast too – had been hit by anti-migrant unrest, following the deadly July 29 stabbings which were falsely linked on social media to an immigrant.
Rioters targeted places of worship and hotels linked to immigration, as well as police, vehicles and other sites.
Recent nights have been largely peaceful in English towns and cities, prompting hope among the authorities that the nearly 800 arrests and numerous people already jailed had deterred further violence.
Despite the respite, UK media reported on Saturday that Prime Minister Keir Starmer had cancelled plans to go on holiday next week to remained focused on the crisis. In Northern Ireland, which has seen sustained disorder since last weekend, police said they were investigating a suspected racially motivated hate crime overnight. A petrol bomb was thrown at a place of worship in Newtownards, east of Belfast, early Saturday, with racist graffiti sprayed on the building, said the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The petrol bomb thrown at the property had failed to ignite, it added. “This is being treated as a racially motivated hate crime, and I want to send a strong message to those who carried this out, that this type of activity will not be tolerated,” PSNI Chief Inspector Keith Hutchinson said.
