Keir Starmer to meet police leaders as Southport attack leads to violent unrest
Keir Starmer will host senior police leaders in Downing Street on Thursday afternoon after a second night of violent unrest across England.
The prime minister is expected to stress to police chiefs that those who perpetrate violence and “sow hatred” should be met with “the full force of the law”.
The meeting comes after a 17-year-old boy was charged with the murders of three girls. Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, were fatally stabbed on Monday at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Hart Street in Southport, Merseyside.
Eight other children suffered knife wounds, with five of them in a critical condition. Two adults were also critically injured.
The accused has been remanded in custody to appear on Thursday at Liverpool magistrates’ court.
The incident sparked violent unrest in London, Hartlepool and Manchester overnight on Wednesday, while a demonstration in Aldershot led to a tense standoff with riot police. Far-right demonstrations were organised after false claims that the attack was carried out by a Muslim asylum seeker who crossed the Channel in a small boat gained traction on social media.
At the meeting Starmer is expected to praise officers’ bravery in dealing with the incident in Southport and its aftermath, and commit to working in partnership with police forces across the UK to stop “mindless violence”.
In London, more than 100 people were arrested after protesters in Whitehall launched beer cans and glass bottles at police and threw flares at the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.
In Hartlepool, a police car was set alight after a large group of people gathered in the Murray Street area. Officers were attacked with missiles, glass bottles and eggs, Cleveland police said. They had made eight arrests, with more expected.
In Manchester, demonstrators turned out in large numbers outside the Holiday Inn hotel on Oldham Road at about 6pm on Wednesday, the Manchester Evening News reported.
About 40 people, who the paper reported included children and men wearing balaclavas, gathered outside the Oldham Road premises in what the paper said “appeared to be a stand against asylum seekers currently being housed in the hotel”. Manchester police dispersed the crowd after protesters started throwing beer bottles at officers and members of the public.
The protest in London was staged under the banner Enough is Enough. Demonstrators wearing England flags chanted “We want our country back” and: “Oh Tommy Robinson”, referring to the rightwing activist. One man wore a shirt with the slogan: “Nigel Farage for Prime Minister, Tommy Robinson for Home Secretary”.
Aldershot appears to have escaped the violence seen in other parts of the country, but a demonstration there was still met by riot police. The local Labour MP, Alex Baker rebuked the violence in her community, stating there was “no justification for disorderly behaviour and the scenes do not represent Aldershot and Farnborough”.
“I have visited the scene myself this evening and have been in touch with the chief inspector … We all support our shared right to peacefully protest but we will not stand for people coming into our towns determined to stir up trouble and divide our community.”
Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, was criticised for appearing to give credence to conspiracy theories about the attack. In a video on Tuesday he questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us”.
Neil Basu, a former senior Scotland Yard officer who was in charge of counter-terrorism from 2018 to 2021, said there were “real world consequences” when public figures failed to “keep their mouth shut”.
“Nigel Farage is giving the EDL [English Defence League] succour, undermining the police, creating conspiracy theories, and giving a false basis for the attacks on the police,” he said, referring to the far-right, Islamophobic group whose supporters are believed to have been involved in the rioting in Southport.