UK Riots — Why Violence Erupted After Girls’ Murders: QuickTake

The UK suffered the worst outbreak of rioting in over a decade, sparked initially by the murder of three young girls in northwest England before morphing into anti-immigrant and racist violence in towns and cities across the country. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said rioters will face the “full force of the law,” but the unrest underscores how his Labour Party’s landslide election win masked deep divisions that an extreme political fringe is trying to exploit.

How did the Southport murders lead to riots?

The killing of three girls in a knife attack at a summer holiday dance class in Southport on July 29 triggered an outpouring of grief. But false rumors on social media that the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum-seeker had a disastrous impact. Even as victims’ families urged calm, groups of people — including from outside Southport — hijacked a vigil, hurled bricks at police and attacked a mosque. With the risk of violence spreading, the court took the rare step of naming the teenager — who was born in the UK — to try to defuse tensions.

Why did unrest spread to Middlesbrough, Hull and other places?

The naming of Axel Rudakubana, reportedly born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, as the suspect saw rioters shift to more general anti-migrant and racist rhetoric as they attacked hotels housing asylum-seekers and shops owned by ethnic minorities. Border control has long been a key political theme including in the 2016 Brexit referendum, but the rioters’ messaging goes beyond mainstream arguments about stretched public services into nativist and ultra-nationalist complaints that British culture and identity face an existential threat.

Who are the rioters and how important is social media?

Authorities have yet to point the finger at specific groups, and there appears to be no formal leadership structure orchestrating the violence. Far-right activists have mobilized online, using X and Telegram to call for protests. It’s clear some of those whipping up the online frenzy are not out on the streets, but officials have warned that “keyboard warriors” will also be liable for prosecution if they incite violence. Hundreds of people have been arrested, and the judiciary is trying to ensure they’re charged rapidly to create a visible deterrent.

Who’s been accused of fueling the unrest?

Though far-right agitator Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, was photographed by the Daily Mail newspaper on a Cyprus sun bed, his X account has been active throughout. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was criticized when he fueled a conspiracy theory that the police were holding back information about the Southport attack. Elon Musk, meanwhile, responded to riot footage on his X platform by saying, “civil war is inevitable.” Starmer’s team hit back at Musk — who shared a stage with ex-premier Rishi Sunak last year — and said social media firms had a responsibility not to spread disinformation.

Why does migration dominate UK politics even after Brexit?

Anti-immigration sentiment was a key driver of the UK’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union, as large swathes of voters blamed migrant workers for a lack of job opportunities and stagnating living standards. But instead of falling, migrant numbers hit a record in 2022 — largely on official student and skilled-worker visas. That’s why some right-wing academics and politicians have hit back at the “far-right” label attached to the riots, arguing that they are the inevitable result of ordinary people feeling ignored on immigration.

How has Sunak’s Rwanda deportation plan played into the riots?

Afraid of losing votes to Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party, Sunak’s Conservative government focused on a smaller group of arrivals: the asylum-seekers crossing the English Channel in small boats. He made it illegal for them to apply for refugee status, and had a plan to deport anyone arriving this way to Rwanda — though it never got up and running. The idea was to present the Tories as tough on immigration, but the effect was to trap thousands in limbo — many housed in the hotels coming under attack in the riots.

How is Farage’s Reform UK shaping the immigration debate?

Sunak’s approach backfired. He amplified the immigration debate but also drew attention to his failure to get numbers down, and the Tories slumped to their worst ever performance in the July general election. Farage’s Reform UK leveraged right-wing frustration to win 14% of the votes. But in Britain’s quirky first-past-the-post electoral system, Reform were left complaining about the “injustice” of having just five seats in the House of Commons. Still, Farage has said that having picked off Tory votes, his party is now taking aim at Labour.

What does the week of violence mean for Starmer?

Any honeymoon Starmer’s Labour hoped for has evaporated, though the fallout is still hard to predict. Right-leaning newspapers have largely criticized the rioters rather than the government. But the agitators clearly dislike the prime minister and Labour, and “two-tier Keir” has emerged as the latest slogan alongside “two-tier policing” to refer to an establishment they say is biased against White Britons. While the number of rioters still remains relatively small, a potential issue for Starmer — who was director of public prosecutions when the last large-scale rioting broke out in 2011 — is that he has inherited a cash-strapped judiciary that may struggle to deliver the crackdown he wants.

The Reference Shelf

• Bloomberg’s Big Take on how Labour’s landslide win masks Britain’s increasingly fragmented politics
• A look at Nigel Farage, and how the Reform UK leader and former Brexit campaigner is still trying to reshape the UK
• Data analysis of how Reform UK’s surge led to a Conservative wipeout

Written by: Eleanor Thornber and Lucy White @Bloomberg

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