As riots continue to engulf the United Kingdom, far-right agitators have targeted hotels housing asylum seekers, setting them ablaze.
On Sunday, the Holiday Inn Express in Tamworth, northern England, was torched, while rioters also gathered near another Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, which also serves as accommodation for asylum seekers.
Protests led by far-right groups have escalated into violent clashes with police across multiple towns, fueled by xenophobia and misinformation linked to the tragic stabbing of three young girls. The unrest, sweeping the country, has resulted in around 400 arrests.
In a televised address on Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the riots as “organized illegal thuggery” by a small minority, warning those involved, including those inciting violence online, that they would come to regret their actions.
As the violence entered its sixth day, Downing Street convened an emergency Cabinet Office briefing (Cobra) meeting to address the crisis.
The unrest was triggered last week during a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop at a community center in Southport, England, where a 17-year-old suspect, Axel Rudakubana, fatally stabbed three young girls. Rudakubana, born in Cardiff to Christian Rwandan parents, became the focus of false claims on social media that he was a Muslim immigrant.
Analysts note that the riots, while ostensibly driven by anti-immigrant sentiment, also reflect deeper xenophobia against minority communities, particularly Muslims, in the UK.
Rosa Freedman, a professor at the University of Reading, told Al Jazeera that the riots stem from the former Conservative government’s complicity with “racist” far-right groups, adding, “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.”
Meanwhile, agitators like Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist and co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL), have been stoking tensions. Robinson, born Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, has been posting inflammatory videos to his 800,000 followers on X, railing against Muslims, migrants, the political establishment, and the police.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
