“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. “This is not a protest, it is organised, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online.”

The violence has subsided now but authorities are taking measures to ensure no flare-ups over the weekend. Several cities saw protest marches on Saturday (August 11), where people carried signs saying “Protect our children from racists” and “Refugees welcome”. What exactly happened?

What happened in Southport?

On the morning of July 29, a knife attack was carried out at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop in a children’s yoga studio in Southport.

Six-year-old Bebe King and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe died on the same day, while nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar died in hospital the next morning from injuries. Eight other children and two adults were also injured.

A 17-year-old was charged with murder and attempted murder for the attack. He is currently under custody in a youth detention centre and will appear at a plea and trial preparation hearing on October 25. News of the attack spread shockwaves through the country.

What triggered protests and violence in the UK?

Hours after a vigil was conducted for the survivors on Tuesday evening, violence erupted across Southport, with demonstrators chanting anti-immigration and racist slogans. Over 50 police officers were injured and the far-right, anti-Islam group English Defence League was held responsible.

A girl runs past flowers at a makeshift memorial allowing people to pay their respects to the victims of a knife attack, in Southport, Britain August 9, 2024. (REUTERS/Yves Herman)

Violence spread to other cities as social media became rife with false claims that the suspect was an asylum seeker and “radical Muslim migrant” who arrived in the UK by a small boat in 2023. Such boats have come in recent years from countries like Albania, Afghanistan and Iran, amid domestic upheaval and tighter immigration policies in developed countries.

Multiple social media accounts, including far-right activist Tommy Robinson and divisive social media influencer Andrew Tate, further amplified false claims.

Despite laws on not sharing the identities of minors, the spread of misinformation led a judge to allow the name of the accused to be revealed. Axel Rudakubana is a British citizen born to Rwandan parents who regularly attended the local church.

Even after this information was disclosed, far-right supporters attacked a mosque in Merseyside, as well as hotels housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and Tamworth. Major cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Hull, and Stoke also saw counter-protests from pro-refugee and pro-immigrant groups, leading to clashes in several locations.

What explains such reactions?

Extremist reactions from the far-right, about the possibility of a refugee or migrant being the perpetrator of a violent crime, arise out of multiple overlapping phenomena.

First, while anti-immigration sentiments are not new in the UK, consecutive Labour and Conservative party leaders have advocated for tougher stances on immigration in recent years. The number of migrants and refugees has increased on a year-on-year basis, particularly in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since around 2015, the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War and crises in multiple Asian and African nations have led to increased migration to Europe. Existing anti-immigration sentiments in the UK, as well as disdain for migrants from the EU, heightened during this period.

The World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Risks Report noted that demographic and cultural factors contributed to Brexit, Britain’s referendum to withdraw from the EU. It indicated a backlash among older and less-educated voters who resonated with “appeals to sovereignty rooted in national identity and pride” as they felt “marginalized within their own countries.”

A CNN analysis noted, “Riots took hold disproportionately in cities and towns suffering from high levels of deprivation; places where, over recent years, people have increasingly seen the creaking foundations of the British state through a lens that focuses unforgivingly on migration.”

Paul James McDermott, 69, told CNN at a small far-right demonstration in Sheffield, “You can’t get a doctor’s appointment, a dentist appointment, a hospital appointment.” The negative view of migrants may also come from a perception of benefits going to them, as public services have seen a decline in quality over time.

Recently, the Conservative Party under former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman batted for the Illegal Migration Law, which espoused the controversial Rwanda Plan. It sought to penalise asylum seekers relying on small boat crossings, indefinitely detaining them and sending them to Rwanda.

Such policies have corresponded with an increase in Islamophobia in the UK. British Home Office data reveals that Muslims were the most targeted religious group for hate crimes. A report from TellMAMA, an organisation documenting hate crimes against Muslims, noted a doubling of such crimes between 2012 and 2022.

The Guardian has reported how the government’s own Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group (AMHWG), for addressing such crimes, has not met in four years.