UK To Hold Emergency Response Meeting Amid Anti-Immigration Violence

UK PM Keir Starmer has condemned the attack this weekend on a Rotherham hotel housing asylum seekers, describing the ongoing violence as 'far-right thuggery'.

The meeting has been called as recent riots are some of the worst clashes that the UK.

Source : X/@Target_Reporter

The Keir Starmer government in the UK will hold an emergency response meeting on Monday on the anti-immigration violence under way in parts of England (Rotherham, Middlesbrough and Bolton) and Northern Ireland. The protests began after last month's attack on a children's dance class where three young girls were stabbed to death. The identity of the minor attacker has not been revealed.

So far, more than 150 people have been arrested in connection with the violence, the BBC reported. According to the report, Starmer has condemned the attack this weekend on a Rotherham hotel housing asylum seekers. He said those involved in the clashes would face "the full force of the law", describing the violence as "far-right thuggery".  

Emergency response meetings in the UK are referred to as 'Cobra' or COBR meetings after the Cabinet Office Briefing Room A on Whitehall. "It is an emergency response committee — a get together of ministers, civil servants, the police, intelligence officers and other officials appropriate to the situation they are looking into," BBC reported.

Monday's meeting, BBC reported, will be intended to provide the government with an update on the violence over the weekend and the response in the coming days. The meeting has been called as the riots are some of the worst clashes that the UK has witnessed in recent years. 

LIVE: More chaos and fear in Bolton than Rotherham and Middlesbrough. The United Kingdom is seeing the worst riots in 13 years or beyond.#BREAKING #RiotsUK #Riots #UKRiots pic.twitter.com/jiYTxwoKR1

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During a televised address on Sunday, the prime minister said people "in this country have a right to be safe". "And yet we've seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques. Other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so no, I won't shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery," he added.

At least 10 police officers were injured during the clashes in Rotherham this weekend, with one left unconscious after anti-immigrant demonstrators threw planks of wood at police and sprayed them with fire extinguishers. 

Some members of the 700-large group smashed windows to gain access to a Holiday Inn Express and a large trash bin was set alight. The officer who was knocked unconscious suffered a head injury, and at least two others are suspected to have suffered broken bones, the force said, according to BBC. 

Hotel employees and residents, including asylum seekers, were “terrified”, although no one is said to have been injured.