UK police prepare for more violent protests as Chinese embassy issues safety advisory

The unrest has prompted some countries to warn their citizens to stay vigilant.

On Wednesday, a statement from the Chinese embassy in London urged Chinese citizens in the UK, including tourists, to “closely monitor the local security situation and avoid going to the locations of the incidents”.

Messages online said immigration centres in the UK and law firms aiding migrants would be targeted on Wednesday night UK time, prompting anti-fascist groups to say they would counter any demonstration.

There appears to be no formal leadership structure orchestrating the violence, and far-right activists have mobilised online using X and Telegram to call for protests.

Speaking after an emergency meeting with ministers and police chiefs on Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said police would be in place to cope with any further disorder.

“Our first duty is to ensure our communities are safe,” he told broadcasters.

“They will be safe. We are doing everything we can to ensure that where a police response is needed, it is in place, where support is needed for particular places, that is in place.”

Starmer said the fact that protests were being held in multiple locations made it difficult, but he had received the assurance he needed that police could cope with any disorder.

As many as 6,000 specialist police were being readied to deal with the disorder.

The government has increased prison capacity to cope with the large number of arrests made during the riots, which have prompted a growing number of countries to warn their citizens about the dangers of travelling in Britain.

Starmer said more than 400 people had been arrested, 100 had been charged, and he was expecting sentencing to start soon.

“Anybody involving themselves in this disorder is going to feel the full force of the law,” he said.

A British man was on Wednesday jailed for three years for his role in the unrest.

Derek Drummond, 58, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court having pleaded guilty to violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker by punching a police officer.

The sentence is believed to be the first imposed for a charge of violent disorder since the unrest began.

Another man, Declan Geiran, 29, was jailed for 30 months after pleading guilty to violent disorder and arson by setting the seat belt of a police van on fire in Liverpool city centre on August 3.

Liam Riley, 41, was jailed for 20 months having pleaded guilty to violent disorder and a racially-aggravated public order offence.

The justice department, which is due to release some prisoners early as it battles a jail overcrowding crisis, said nearly 600 prison places had been secured to accommodate those engaged in violence.

Starmer has vowed a reckoning for those who have engaged in rioting, hurling bricks at the police and counter protesters, and looting shops and burning cars.

Police on Tuesday charged a 28-year-old man with stirring up racial hatred over Facebook posts linked to the disorder. A 14-year-old pleaded guilty to violent disorder.

On Monday night, trouble flared in Plymouth, southern England, and again in Belfast in Northern Ireland, where hundreds of rioters threw petrol bombs and heavy masonry at officers and set a police vehicle on fire.

Police have blamed online disinformation, amplified by high-profile figures, for driving the violence.

At the end of December 2023, there were 111,132 individuals in receipt of asylum support in Britain, with 45,768 people in hotels. During that year, the government’s statistics office estimates that net migration to the country was 685,000.

Experts on extremism and social cohesion say far-right agitators have used the Southport killings to spark violence.

Sunder Katwala, director of the think tank British Future, which focuses on migration and identity, said the killings had been used “to mobilise against, particularly asylum seekers and Muslims, and that has continued, after the evidence which is that the person is neither an asylum seeker, nor a Muslim”.

The police have said the attack was not terrorism-related and that the suspect was born in Britain. Media reports have said the suspect’s parents moved to Britain from Rwanda, a majority-Christian country.

In a YouGov poll on Tuesday, three quarters of respondents said the rioters did not represent the views of Britain as a whole, with 7 per cent saying they supported the violence.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Bloomberg

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