Violent unrest has erupted in several towns and cities in Britain in recent days, and further disorder broke out on Saturday as far-right agitators gathered in demonstrations around the country.

The violence has been driven by online disinformation and extremist right-wing groups intent on creating disorder after a deadly knife attack on a children’s event in northwestern England, experts said.

A range of far-right factions and individuals, including neo-Nazis, violent soccer fans and anti-Muslim campaigners, have promoted and taken part in the unrest, which has also been stoked by online influencers.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to deploy additional police officers to crack down on the disorder. “This is not a protest that has got out of hand,” he said on Thursday. “It is a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence.”

Here is what we know about the unrest and some of those involved.

Where have riots taken place?

The first riot took place on Tuesday evening in Southport, a town in northwestern England, after a deadly stabbing attack the previous day at a children’s dance and yoga class. Three girls died of their injuries, and eight other children and two adults were wounded.

The suspect, Axel Rudakubana, was born in Britain, but in the hours after the attack, disinformation about his identity — including the false claim that he was an undocumented migrant — spread rapidly online. Far-right activists used messaging apps including Telegram and X to urge people to take to the streets.

Over 200 people descended on Southport on Tuesday night, many traveling by train from elsewhere in Britain, the police said. Rioters attacked a mosque, wounded more than 50 police officers and set vehicles alight.

On Wednesday night, another far-right demonstration brought clashes with the police in central London, leading to over 100 arrests. Smaller pockets of disorder broke out in Hartlepool, in northeastern England; in the city of Manchester; and in Aldershot, a town southeast of London.

On Friday night, Northumbria Police said its officers had been “subjected to serious violence” as far-right demonstrators set fires and attacked officers in Sunderland, a city in the northeast.

Saturday brought violent protests to cities including Hull, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent, as well as Belfast, Northern Ireland. In Liverpool, the police said more than 300 people had been involved in “violent disorder” on Saturday night, with businesses looted and two officers hospitalized.

The chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Gavin Stephens, told BBC Radio on Friday that extra officers would be on Britain’s streets and that the police would use lessons learned from the 2011 London riots.

“We will have surge capacity in our intelligence, in our briefing and in the resources that are out in local communities,” he said. The organization has said that nearly 4,000 additional officers have been deployed to deter the violence.

Which groups are behind the unrest?
Several far-right groups have been at the riots or promoted them on social media. David Miles, a prominent member of Patriotic Alternative, a fascist group, shared photographs of himself in Southport, according to Hope Not Hate, a Britain-based advocacy group that researches extremist organizations.

Other far-right agitators spread information about the protest on social media, including British Movement, a neo-Nazi group. Images of the protests examined by Hope not Hate showed some people with Nazi tattoos.

After the disorder in Southport, the police said that supporters of the English Defence League had been involved. The riots have also attracted people linked to soccer violence, or hooliganism, which has long overlapped with nationalist movements in Britain.

A group of people point and throw a traffic cone at a police officer who bends over to get out of the way.

A crowd clashed with the police after a vigil near the site of the stabbing attack in Southport on Tuesday.Credit…Richard McCarthy/Press Association, via Associated Press
Officials noted that not everyone at the demonstrations had far-right views. David Hanson, a cabinet minister, told LBC Radio on Friday: “Some might be caught up in the summer madness. Some might be people who’ve got genuine concerns.”

But, he warned, “If you are organising this now, we will be watching you.”

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Far-right demonstrators have vandalised a hotel housing asylum seekers in the northern England town of Rotherham, as the United Kingdom grapples with its worst riots in 13 years.

On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered at a Holiday Inn Express hotel used to house asylum seekers near Rotherham, before throwing bricks at police, breaking several hotel windows, and then setting bins on fire.

Footage from UK broadcaster Sky News showed a line of police officers with shields facing a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers, as they sought to prevent the rioters from entering the hotel.

A police helicopter circled overhead, and at least one injured officer in riot gear was carried away as the atmosphere turned increasingly febrile.

The unrest is the latest bout of rioting in the UK that has gripped the nation, following a stabbing rampage at a dance class last week in the north of England that left three girls dead and several wounded.

According to police officials, false rumours spread online that the young man in the Southport stabbing was a Muslim and an immigrant, fuelling anger among the far-right in the country.

Speaking on Sunday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “there is no justification” for the far-right violence, which has led to attacks on mosques and assaults on Muslims and ethnic minorities.

“People in this country have a right to be safe and yet we have seen Muslim communities targeted and attacks on mosques,” Starmer said.

The prime minister added that “he won’t shy away from calling it [the rioting] what it is” and that is “far-right thuggery”.

“To those who feel targeted because of the colour of your skin or your faith, I know how frightening this must be,” he said.

“I want you to know this violent mob do not represent this country and we will bring them to justice.”

Starmer had been criticised by some for not being vocal enough in denouncing the explicitly racist and Islamophobic nature of some of the attacks committed by those rioting.

Zarah Sultana, a Labour MP who is currently suspended from the party for voting against the government, called on social media for Parliament to be recalled from its summer break.

Xenophobic rhetoric

Elsewhere in the UK, the atmosphere has also been particularly tense. In the northeast town of Middlesborough, protesters broke free of a police guard. As protests began in Bolton, near Manchester, police said that a dispersal notice had been authorised to give officers extra powers to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Police officials have said many of the actions are being organised online by shadowy far-right groups, who are mobilising support online with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats”. They are tapping into a narrative – amplified by right-wing media outlets and commentators – about the scale of immigration in the country, in particular the tens of thousands of migrants and refugees arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel.

Critics have repeatedly pointed out that the spread of misinformation and the amplification of xenophobic rhetoric about immigrants and minority communities in the UK has led to the current outbreak of violence.

Rosa Freedman, a professor at the University of Reading, told Al Jazeera that the riots in the UK are a result of the former Conservative government, which lost power last month, giving legitimacy to a small minority of “racists”.

“Instead of hiding their faces, they have now been coming out … we cannot blame a Labour party that has [only] been in government [for] the past four weeks,” she said.

“There is a conversation that needs to be had in the UK and other countries about immigration …. we also need to tackle this from a human rights lens.”

Police have noted that calls to hold riots have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson.

He led the English Defence League, which the Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, a day after the stabbing attack. Yaxley-Lennon, 41, has been jailed for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud and currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the UK last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, who was elected to Parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform UK, has also been blamed by many for encouraging — indirectly — the anti-immigration sentiment that has been evident over the past few days.

While condemning the violence, Farage has criticised the government for blaming it on “a few far-right thugs” and saying “the far right is a reaction to fear … shared by tens of millions of people”.

The anti-far-right group Hope Not Hate condemned the framing of the protests as “outpourings of legitimate anger”.

“They are not. This is racist violence spurred on by far-right hatred,” the group said in a statement. “Those directly involved in these horrifying scenes need to face the full force of the law.”

“Responsibility also lies with those who have promoted and defended these riots such as Tommy Robinson. This explosion of racist violence across the country is the result of years of far-right agitation,” the group said. “However, these events are also the result of a climate of anti-Muslim and anti-asylum seeker hostility stoked by elements of our media and supposedly mainstream politicians.”

UK leader Keir Starmer warned far-right protesters on Sunday they would “regret” participating in England’s worst rioting in 13 years, as disturbances linked to the murder of three children earlier this week flared across the country for a fifth day.

Masked anti-immigration demonstrators smashed several windows at a hotel that has been used to house asylum seekers in Rotherham, South Yorkshire

Unrest related to misinformation about the mass stabbing last Monday in the northwestern English seaside town of Southport has impacted multiple towns and cities, with anti-immigration demonstrators clashing with police.

The violence is posing an early major challenge for Starmer, who was elected only a month ago after leading Labour to a landslide win over the Conservatives.

“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder. Whether directly or those whipping up this action online, and then running away themselves,” Starmer said in a TV address.

He added that there was “no justification” for what he called “far-right thuggery” and promised to bring the perpetrators “to justice”.

Footage aired on the BBC showed rioters forcing their way into a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham. They also pushed a burning bin into the building. It was not clear whether asylum seekers were inside.

In the northeastern English city of Middlesbrough, hundreds of protesters squared up to riot police carrying shields. Some threw bricks, cans and pots at officers.

The fresh disturbances came after more than 90 people were arrested on Saturday following skirmishes at far-right rallies in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Blackpool and Hull, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Rioters threw bricks, bottles and flares at police — injuring several officers — looted and burnt shops, while demonstrators shouted anti-Islamic slurs as they clashed with counter-protesters.

The violence is the worst England has seen since the summer of 2011, when widespread rioting took place following the police killing of a mixed-race man in north London.

“We’re now seeing it (trouble) flooding across major cities and towns,” said Tiffany Lynch of the Police Federation of England and Wales.

Riots first flared in Southport on Tuesday night following Monday’s frenzied knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in the northwest coastal city, before spreading up and down England.

• ‘Wake-up call’ –
  They were fuelled by false rumours on social media about the background of British-born 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana, who is accused of killing a six, seven, and nine-year-old, and injuring another 10 people.

Police have blamed the violence on supporters and associated organisations of the English Defence League, an anti-Islam organisation founded 15 years ago whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.

Agitators have targeted at least two mosques, and the UK interior ministry announced Sunday it was offering new emergency security to the Islamic places of worship.

The rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner “Enough is enough”.

Participants have waved English and British flags while chanting slogans like “Stop the boats” — a reference to irregular migrants travelling to Britain from France.

Anti-fascist demonstrators have held counter-rallies in many cities, including Leeds where they shouted, “Nazi scum off our streets”, as the far-right protesters chanted, “You’re not English any more”.

Not all the gatherings have turned violent. A peaceful one in Aldershot, southern England, on Sunday saw participants hold placards that read “Stop the invasion” and “We’re not far right, we’re just right”.

“People are fed up with being told you should be ashamed if you’re white and working class but I’m proud white working class,” 41-year-old Karina, who did not give her surname, told AFP in Nottingham on Saturday.

Commentators have suggested that the demonstrators may feel emboldened by the political ascendancy of anti-immigration elements in British politics.

At last month’s election, the Reform UK party led by Brexit cheerleader Nigel Farage captured 14 percent of the vote — one of the largest vote shares for a far-right British party.

Carla Denyer, co-leader of the left-wing Green party, said the unrest should be “a wake-up call to all politicians who have actively promoted or given in” to anti-immigration rhetoric.

Detectives from the UK’s largest police force said Friday that they were leading the manhunt after two suitcases believed to contain the remains of two men were dumped on a famous bridge.

Avon and Somerset Police received a report late on Wednesday night of a man with a suitcase acting suspiciously on the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, southwest England.

Officers arrived at the scene around 10 minutes later, but the man had fled.

He did, however, leave the suitcase and the police found a second suitcase shortly afterwards.

Both were found to contain human remains.

“The victims have not been formally identified but both are believed to be adult men,” said the Metropolitan Police.

The London-based force has now taken over the investigation after evidence suggested that the wanted man had travelled to Bristol from the UK capital earlier on Wednesday.

A crime scene has been set up in west London, he added.

Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by the pioneering engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is one of the oldest surviving suspension bridges in the world.

Opened in 1864, the bridge over the Avon Gorge is one of Bristol’s top tourist attractions and a symbol of the city.

Thousands of prisoners are to be released early in September in order to prevent the “collapse” of the prison system, the UK’s new justice minister announced on Friday.

Shabana Mahmood said failure to do so risked the “total breakdown of law and order,” with just 700 places left for men, and jails operating at 99 per cent capacity since 2023.

England and Wales have the highest per capita prison population in Western Europe.

The chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, said this week that urgent action was required, as prisons were at “breaking point”.

The release initiative would not apply to violent offenders serving more than four years, sex offenders, those in prison for domestic abuse offences, as well as those on life sentences.

Mahmood, appointed last week after Labour’s general election win, warned in dramatic language that if prisons ran out of cell space, there could be “van-loads of dangerous people circling the country with nowhere to go”.

“With officers unable to act, criminals could do whatever they want, without consequence. We could see looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight,” she said in a speech at a prison.

“In short, if we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system.”

Mahmood accused the previous Conservative government of a “dereliction of duty” regarding the system.

Her comments echoed Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who earlier told reporters while attending a NATO summit in the United States that the ousted Tories were guilty of “gross irresponsibility”.

“The scale of the problem was worse than we thought,” he said.

– ‘Good sense’ –

Mahmood’s Conservative predecessor in the post, Alex Chalk, had reportedly pressed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to impose similar measures before the election but was overruled.

Under Labour’s plans, prisoners who are eligible for automatic release after serving half their sentence will be freed earlier than normal.

The plans involve a temporary reduction of how long prisoners must serve behind bars, from 50 per cent to 40 per cent of their sentence.

The releases will start in September to give the Prison and Probation Service time to plan.

Mahmood also announced the recruitment of 1,000 additional trainee probation officers by next March.

The total number of prisoners hit over 87,505 on Friday — of whom 83,755 were men — leaving just 1,451 spaces available, official figures showed.

Since the start of 2023, the average occupancy rate in men’s prisons had “routinely been higher than 99 per cent”, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Officials say the prison system needs a buffer of around 1,425 cell spaces in men’s prisons at all times to deal with sudden influxes of inmates.

Six new prisons to create an extra 20,000 places are being built — of which about 10,000 will be ready by the end of next year.

The Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) said it welcomed the speed of the new measures while demanding a “full review” and that “the public must never be placed in this position again”.

PGA chairman Mark Fairhurst said the measures would free up around 4,500-5,000 more spaces and give prisons around 12 to 18 months before further steps would be needed.

Meanwhile, Prison Reform Trust chief executive Pia Sinha said ministers “had the good sense to listen to the advice of its officials and introduce further emergency measures.”

A would-be attacker who planned to kidnap, rape and murder one of the UK’s top celebrities was on Friday given a life sentence with a minimum jail term of 15 years.

Gavin Plumb, 37, was last week found guilty of planning to “ambush” television presenter Holly Willoughby, 43, at her home, before taking her to a dungeon-type room.

He was caught after a US undercover police officer infiltrated an online group and forwarded Plumb’s posts to the FBI.

US law enforcement officers then handed the evidence to UK police, who raided Plumb’s home in Harlow, southeast England. They found an “abduction kit”, which included cable ties and chloroform.

Willoughby, a daytime television presenter described by judge Edward Murray as a “well-known and well-loved public figure”, said the case had had a “life-changing” impact, according to a summary of her victim impact statement read in court.

“It is clear, the prosecution submit,… that the extent of the shock and fear caused by this offending has been impossible to convey,” said prosecutor Alison Morgan.

Morgan also said the media had not reported the full extent of his plans as they were “so depraved and vile”, but the court was told that Plumb had intended to harm Willoughby’s husband and children.

Plumb, who has a string of previous convictions relating to kidnapping and false imprisonment, told the undercover police officer online that he planned to slit Willoughby’s throat as he tried to convince him to join in the plot, court heard.His legal team said that he “worshipped and was obsessed” by Willoughby and was “devastated to be the cause of such pain to her”.

Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service, called Plumb “a dangerous man who plotted unspeakable violence against one of the nation’s most familiar faces.”

Despite his attempts to pass himself off as a harmless fantasist, the prosecution persuaded the jury that Plumb posed a very real threat,” she added.

In England and Wales, life imprisonment is a sentence that lasts until a prisoner dies, but in most cases the judge sets a minimum term, after which they become eligible for parole.