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A fresh outburst of violent disorder broke out in Rotherham on Sunday afternoon after dozens were arrested in clashes with the police in towns and cities across England on Saturday.
A far-right protest in the South Yorkshire town turned violent as masked demonstrators stormed a hotel in the belief that it was being used to house asylum seekers.
The demonstration had begun several hours earlier but escalated as the crowd began pelting officers with debris and bottles. Footage posted online showed a bin being set on fire outside the hotel and demonstrators smashing their way inside.
It was the latest disruption after several nights of unrest triggered by the killing of three girls in the Lancashire town of Southport on Monday, and came hours after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned that “violence committed by a small minority of thugs” would be met with the full weight of the law.
The protests are the most widespread eruption of far-right violence in the UK for years, and have been fuelled by a torrent of Islamophobic and anti-immigrant misinformation spread on social media by far-right influencers since the mass stabbing in Southport.
More than 100 people were arrested on Saturday after violent gatherings in several towns and cities including Bristol, Blackpool, Hull and Liverpool, according to various regional police forces.
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Judges were on Sunday considering keeping courts open all night to work through the backlog of cases, as they did in the wake of the 2011 riots that resulted in thousands of arrests and prosecutions.
In Bolton, Greater Manchester, police issued a dispersal order on Sunday afternoon as several hundred demonstrators and counter demonstrators gathered in the town hall square.
Missiles were thrown as tensions escalated and the protests spilled out across the town centre, with the two sides confronting one another while police attempted to keep them separate.
Around 300 protesters marched through Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire on Sunday afternoon before breaking through a police line in the city centre and throwing projectiles including pieces of slate and plastic bottles.
Starmer held emergency talks with ministers this weekend to discuss the riots spurred by far-right agitators. He said the right to freedom of expression and violent disorder were “two very different things” and labelled participants “extremists”.
The prime minister said the government backed the police to “take all necessary action” to keep Britain’s streets safe after attacks on police officers, disruption to local businesses and what he said were attempts to sow hate by intimidating communities.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council said 4,000 extra officers were in place across the country to deal with any further outbreaks of violence.
South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard called the scenes in Rotherham “brutal thuggery directed against some of the most vulnerable people in our society”.
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly said that there was no “justification or rationale” for the violence in Rotherham. “This should be condemned by everybody, and those taking part should expect to be met with the full weight of the law,” he posted on social media site X.
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