A number of violent riots led by the far-right have taken place across the UK over the past week, many of them targeting mosques and hotels currently housing asylum seekers. Almost 500 people have been arrested for crimes including criminal damage and injuring police officers; a disgusting display of hatred, racism and xenophobia that has caused many across Britain to fear for their safety. Thousands attended counter-protests, protecting asylum centres and holding signs with slogans like Unite to Stop the Far Right and No to Fascism.
It seems that the far-right has mobilised significantly in a short space of time – but why? A key factor in the explosion of xenophobic violence was false information regarding the perpetrator of the tragic Southport stabbings that occurred on 29th July. Rumours began spreading on X (formerly Twitter) that the 17-year-old boy responsible was an asylum seeker who had recently entered the UK. These tweets were posted before his identity was officially released, yet were being presented online as though verifiable fact. (The killer was in fact born in Cardiff, Wales.)
Responses to this rumour were rife; including a tweet from notorious media figure Andrew Tate. He claimed that the killer was an “illegal migrant”, using the tragedy to support his own anti-immigrant agenda. For Tate, who was charged in a Romanian court with rape and human trafficking, to purportedly care about the well-being of young women, is both hypocritical and deeply offensive.
Elon Musk’s X is a breeding ground for mis- and disinformation; a cesspit of far-right, Islamophobic and racist rhetoric going almost entirely unmonitored and unverified. Musk himself tweeted “Civil war is inevitable”, in response to a user blaming the violent riots on migration. He is a key player in the amplification of populist, bigoted voices – deliberately allowing users like Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate huge platforms to spread hate. In fact, Labour MPs Chi Onwurah and Dawn Butler said they would like to hold Musk accountable for the role his platform has had in inciting these riots.
Of course, social media and disinformation is not solely to blame. Infamous far-right leader Tommy Robinson (who founded the English Defence League) led a huge rally in London’s Trafalgar Square on Saturday 27th July, predating the stabbings by two days. Thousands attended, waving English and British flags around the capital. The tragedy in Southport may have added fuel to the fire, but it seems that the far-right were gearing up already.
This did not happen in a vacuum. The Islamophobic, anti-immigrant rhetoric used in Westminster over the past few years (and beyond) has worked to normalise hateful language and ideas. If Tommy Robinson is the criminal face of the far-right, then Nigel Farage is its ‘respectable’ one. His Reform party democratically won five seats in the House of Commons in July’s elections, meaning the xenophobic hard-right has a legitimate sway over the future of British politics. And the link between Robinson’s rioters and Farage’s politicians is overt – according to Robinson, Farage was invited to speak at the Trafalgar Square rally, and cheers went up in the crowd when Reform was mentioned.
Piggybacking on tragedy to push racist, xenophobic politics is the oldest trick in the far-right playbook. By taking advantage of people’s fears and giving them a clear enemy to blame their worries on (be it Muslims, asylum seekers, or immigrants), they can conjure up support for their cause. Pretending that there is anything other than opportunism behind their “concern” is naive. To use the murders of three girls, aged between six and nine, to benefit a violently xenophobic agenda is disrespectful not only to the grieving community of Southport, but also to the memories of those who tragically lost their lives.
In the past decade, moral panics regarding immigration have been conjured multiple times following reportage on crime. Tommy Robinson has long spoken about “grooming gangs” in the UK, using horrific real-life events and victims of police malpractice for his own goals – to demonise immigrants and Muslim men. His racist commentary about a grooming court case in Huddersfield broke reporting restrictions and almost collapsed the trial, showing his priority is never to get justice for victims, but rather to turn attention to himself and his abhorrent politics.
And yet, the past few days have also shown that the rioters do not speak for the people of Britain. Counter-protesters turned out in their thousands to fight against the far-right, proving that the vast majority of Britons are appalled by the behaviour exhibited during the riots. A social media post told of plans for multiple racist riots across the UK on Wednesday 7th August, so anti-fascist, anti-racist protests were planned in response, protecting the immigration centres, law firms and hotels housing asylum seekers that were due to be targeted. These counter-protests turned out to be enormous – with thousands gathering in cities such as London, Newcastle, and Birmingham. In Brighton, the far-right protesters were so vastly outnumbered that they required police protection.
Though these counter-protests have shown that majority of citizens oppose the behaviour of an outspoken few, actions must be taken to combat the ugly culture of xenophobia within British society that led up to the riots. Violent riots, looting, and physical attacks have made Muslims and People of Colour fear for their safety in the country they call home – a devastating reality that must be acknowledged and remedied as a matter of urgency. Harsh consequences, both legal and social, are required; not just for physical violence on the streets, but also for the violent rhetoric used on social media, in the news, and by Westminster politicians.
