Archbishop says rioters ‘defile the flag they wrap themselves in’ after violence continues for seventh night
Good morning.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that rioters “defile the flag they wrap themselves in” on Tuesday morning, following seven days of far-riot riots that have seen violence spread across several towns and cities in England, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Archbishop Justin Welby told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is not the United Kingdom. It is not British. It is not English. They defile the flag they wrap themselves in.”
He said there had been “manipulation … by people on social media, by people abroad and that needs to be strongly resisted.”
Here is a quick summary of the developments overnight:
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Police officers have been injured during “sustained violence” in Plymouth as disorder on Monday continued for a seventh day after the Southport stabbings.
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In Belfast, social media footage showed officers attacked with missiles in the Donegall Road and Sandy Row areas. The violence occurred in the same area where two businesses were attacked on Saturday.
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Nearly 400 arrests have been made since the Southport stabbings a week ago, after which the riots began. The total is expected to rise each day, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said.
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Neil Basu, Britain’s former head of counter-terrorism, said he believed the worst of the far-right violence should be treated as terrorism.
Key events
Man in serious condition in hospital in Belfast after suspected hate crime
Rory Carroll
People stamped on a man’s head in an attack that police are treating as a hate crime during another night of rioting in Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Members of the public attempted to shield the man, who is in his 30s, during the disturbances in the Donegall Road and Oban Street area on Monday night, police said.
He has been hospitalised. “His condition is described as serious and we are treating his attack as a hate crime,” said the statement.
The crowd, several dozen-strong, threw bricks and petrol bombs, set a police Land Rover alight and attempted to burn the remains of a supermarket that had been torched during a riot on Saturday. It is owned by an immigrant. “Officers were able to douse this small fire before it developed,” said the statement.
Police said they fired two Attenuating Energy Projectiles (AEPs), striking a rioter on the hand, and arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of riotous behaviour.
“There is never any justification for this type of violent behaviour,” Gordon Lyons, Stormont’s community minister, told the BBC. “There is no justification for attack on the police it needs to stop and it needs to stop straight away.”
The Stormont assembly is to be recalled on Thursday to discuss the disturbances and race relations.
Social media companies have a “moral responsibility” not to aid the spread of disinformation and inflammatory content on their platforms, the justice minister has said.
Heidi Alexander told Sky News: “The idea that you can sit behind a computer screen or sit behind the screen of your mobile phone and somehow think that that protects you from the law is for the birds.” She added that the government will take “a very robust approach” to the companies.
“There has been some welcome action where there has been automated removal of some false information, but I do think the social media companies could and should be doing more,” Alexander said.
“They have got a moral responsibility not to be propagating and disseminating misleading and inflammatory content on their platforms.”
Elon Musk’s post on X that “civil war is inevitable” amid the continued spread of rioting in England and Northern Ireland is “deeply irresponsible”, justice minister Heidi Alexander said.
Musk, the head of X, formerly Twitter, has faced a backlash to his comments as social media sites have also been criticised for not doing enough to tackle the spread of disinformation. Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is already known to be among those who are being looked at by police for their alleged role in disseminating disinformation.
Alexander told Times Radio: “If you have got a platform, a large social media platform, then you have also got a responsibility.” She said it was “deeply irresponsible” and that “everyone should be appealing for calm”.
“Use of language such as a ‘civil war’ is in no way acceptable. We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly,” Alexander said.
A woman from Middlesbrough has spoked about the ‘traumatic’ experience of having her family’s home attacked in the far-right riots that reached her area over the weekend.
A woman called Anika told BBC Radio 4 about the rioting in her area, which left damage to their property. “We closed all the blinds and curtains, windows, whatever could lock. Go upstairs obviously, because it’s not safe to be downstairs.”
She said people tried to get into their home, smashing the door’s window. “They were swearing racial slurs and then jumping on top of the [car] windscreen, the roof of it, breaking the side mirror windows – the car had to be a write-off.” She added that her mother, a carer, had not been able to go to the child she cares for due to the riot and damage to the vehicle.
Anika described the attack as “really scary”. “It’s just been like a traumatic experience, like we’ve never experienced it our life.”
Government introduces more than 500 extra prison places over riots
The government has introduced more than 500 additional prison places in response to the far-right riots, the justice minister has said, and those causing disorder will have a “prison place waiting for them”.
Nearly 400 arrests have been made since the disorder began a week ago in the wake of the Southport stabbings. Police officers were attacked and injured in Plymouth, Belfast and Darlington on Monday.
“We will make sure that anyone that is given a custodial sentence as a result of the riots and disorder, there will be a prison place waiting for them,” the justice minister Heidi Alexander told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
In response to the disorder, the government had introduced 567 additional prison places that were due to come forward at the end of the month, Alexander said.
The new prison spaces will be in Stocken prison in Rutland and Cookham Wood young offender institution in Kent, according to the justice minister.
Archbishop says rioters ‘defile the flag they wrap themselves in’ after violence continues for seventh night
Good morning.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that rioters “defile the flag they wrap themselves in” on Tuesday morning, following seven days of far-riot riots that have seen violence spread across several towns and cities in England, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Archbishop Justin Welby told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is not the United Kingdom. It is not British. It is not English. They defile the flag they wrap themselves in.”
He said there had been “manipulation … by people on social media, by people abroad and that needs to be strongly resisted.”
Here is a quick summary of the developments overnight:
-
Police officers have been injured during “sustained violence” in Plymouth as disorder on Monday continued for a seventh day after the Southport stabbings.
-
In Belfast, social media footage showed officers attacked with missiles in the Donegall Road and Sandy Row areas. The violence occurred in the same area where two businesses were attacked on Saturday.
-
Nearly 400 arrests have been made since the Southport stabbings a week ago, after which the riots began. The total is expected to rise each day, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said.
-
Neil Basu, Britain’s former head of counter-terrorism, said he believed the worst of the far-right violence should be treated as terrorism.
