UK riots: Keir Starmer sends four-word message to police as far-Right danger looms

Police must not “let up” in their defence of Britain amid threats of more far-Right riots across the country this weekend, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Thugs bowed to tough and swift justice being dished out in courts by disappearing from the nation’s streets on Wednesday following days of chaos.

But Sir Keir will hold his third high-level Cobra meeting of the week in anticipation of further unrest.

The meeting is happening before an expected 20 potential gatherings and three counter-protests just hours later, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said.

Communities in Newcastle, Liverpool, Salford, Taunton, Birmingham, Dover, Bournemouth and Glasgow are said to be bracing for more far-right protests in coming days.

Sir Keir said Wednesday’s expected night of terror turned out “much better than was expected”, and suggested the additional deployment of police officers and the quick sentencing of people involved in disorder were the reasons riots did not happen.

Speaking during a visit to a mosque in Solihull, the Prime Minister said: “We were able to demonstrate the criminal justice system working speedily, so yesterday we saw the sentencing of individuals who had been involved in disorder days ago, some of them getting sentences as long as three years.

“That sent a very powerful message.”

But Sir Keir insisted it was “important that we don’t let up”.

Yobs are said to be planning 11 more riots in secret Facebook groups so cops "can't catch on" after more than a week of chaos following stabbings in Southport last Monday.

The organisers plan to unleash thuggery on the opening gameweek of the new English football season on Saturday.

The details of 39 immigration law specialists' offices, asylum support charities and immigration services were circulated in a list shared on Wednesday

But their plans were foiled when up to 25,000 counter-protesters gathered outside the locations instead to take a stand against racism and violence.

Police vans also lined streets in the biggest mobilisation of law enforcers since the 2011 riots.

Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley suggested the “show of force from the police” and “the show of unity from communities” together “defeated the challenges that we’ve seen”.

He told how his force had been carrying out “dawn raids” this morning, searching for the most violent in the Whitehall protests and violence last week”, about 70% of whom have criminal backgrounds.

“We’ve got criminal damage, violence, weapons offences, football banning orders. These are criminal thugs,” Sir Mark said.

Gavin Stephens, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “I think what we saw [on Wednesday night] was a loud and clear message from communities that they’d had enough, that there’s no place for hate, that there’s no place for violence.”

Mr Stephens admitted the cost of damage to the communities affected by the disorder over the last nine days was “going to take a long, long time to recover”.

He also said the English Football League was working with police as assessments were being refreshed by police on a “fixture-by fixture level”.

The police chief said: “In reality, what will probably happen to do with some of those football fixtures is the resources will be drawn down the tiers, in order to bolster extra support.”

Mr Stephens added he felt the “community spirit” at football matches could act as a “big counterbalance” to any possible disorder.

People charged with offences related to rioting have continued to appear in the dock across the country.

Meanwhile others making inflammatory comments online will not escape the full force of the law, Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson warned.

She insisted legal repercussions will “come for” those involved in inciting riots on social media.

The Labour frontbencher said: “It’s not just those physical acts on the street that we’re going to make sure people are brought to account for, but it’s also what’s happening online and that’s really important.

“This week, we saw the first person being charged and convicted of what he’d done online, inciting violence, racial violence, and that is important.

“If you do stuff online we will come for you, just as much as we will come for you for what you do on the streets of our country if you’re carrying out criminal disorder and violence.”

She also said social media giants have an “obligation” to deal with criminal offences being committed on their platforms.

Elon Musk has deleted an image he shared on X, formerly Twitter, which promoted a conspiracy theory about the UK building "detainment camps" on the Falkland Islands for rioters.

The image - which was faked to look like it had come from the Daily Telegraph website - had been posted by co-leader of the far-right Britain First party, Ashlea Simon, though it had appeared elsewhere before she shared it.

Mr Musk's post was viewed more than 1.7 million times before it was removed - with Ms Simon's post briefly tagged with a note reading "this story does not exist" before it too was removed.

It is the latest in a series of controversial interventions from the tech billionaire since the unrest began, some of which have been directly condemned by Sir Keir.

The role of social media platforms, including X, in the disorder is also the subject of intense scrutiny, with the government and media regulator urging greater action from them.

Mr Musk did not acknowledge that he had reposted the fake news but deleted the post.