SOLIHULL (United Kingdom): UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Thursday not to ease up efforts to stop further far-right riots in English towns and cities, after more anticipated street violence failed to materialise overnight. The UK leader said despite a largely peaceful Wednesday evening, he would chair another emergency meeting of senior ministers and police leaders later on Thursday to plan for potential trouble in “the coming days”.
He also noted the criminal justice system would continue “working speedily” to convict those already arrested during a week of near nightly riots across England and in Northern Ireland.
It came as a judge in Liverpool, northeast England, jailed several more participants in the violence, which has seen mosques and migrant-related facilities attacked alongside police and other targets. “It’s important that we don’t let up here,” Starmer told media outlets as he visited a mosque and met community leaders in Solihull, western England. “That’s why later on today, I’ll have another... meeting with law enforcement, with senior police officers, to make sure that we reflect on last night but also plan for the coming days.”
Starmer credited “police deployed in numbers in the right places, giving reassurance to communities” with helping to ease the unrest overnight.
Instead of rumoured far-right gatherings at dozens of sites linked to immigrant support services, thousands of anti-racism and anti-facism protesters took to the streets.
They massed in considerable numbers, holding rallies in cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.
“Whose streets? Our streets!” thousands chanted in Walthamstow, northeast London, where hundreds of pro-Palestine supporters joined the rally under a heavy police presence.
However, Northern Ireland saw another night of disturbances — its fourth in a row. There were five arrests and a police officer was injured during disorder in Belfast.
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