LONDON (AFP) - The UK has been hit by violent unrest in recent days following a knife attack targeting children, with far-right anti-immigration groups accused of using the tragedy to incite further disorder. Violence erupted first in Southport and then spread to other towns, raising key questions about the role of social media, political responses, and the far-right’s influence in fueling these disturbances.
The UK has been rocked in recent days by violent disorder following a knife attack targeting children, with already ascendant anti-immigration far-right elements accused of hijacking the response to the tragedy.
Here are some of the key questions around this week's events.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
Violence first flared on Tuesday night in Southport, northwest England, where Monday's stabbing spree allegedly carried out by 17-year-old suspect Axel Rudakubana occurred.
A crowd numbering in the hundreds gathered in the seaside town near Liverpool after a vigil, and attacked police and vehicles, lit fires and threw missiles at a mosque.
The disturbances lasted late into the night and injured dozens of police officers.
Several other English towns and cities then saw unrest on Wednesday night, including in London where police arrested 111 people and more officers were hurt.
Hundreds had gathered on Whitehall, outside the prime minister's Downing Street office and residence, with officers "subjected to assault, abuse and violent disorder", according to the capital's Metropolitan Police.
"It is shameful that some have sought to exploit this tragedy as justification for their own violence and criminality," said Met Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist.
WHO'S BEEN BLAMED?
Police have pointed to people from outside Southport for orchestrating Tuesday's riot there, in particular supporters of the English Defence League (EDL).
High-profile far-right agitator Tommy Robinson helped establish the Islamophobic organisation, whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism, 15 years ago.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon, has maintained a stream of social media posts about the Southport stabbings and subsequent unrest.
"As disorder spreads... don't say I didn't warn you," he said on X late Wednesday.
Rioters in Hartlepool, northeast England, and other flashpoints Wednesday night have chanted Robinson's name during disturbances.
Other far-right figures and social media handles have been similarly active online posting about the recent events.
Actor-turned-"anti-woke" activist Laurence Fox shared with his more than 525,000 X followers details of the Whitehall demonstration that turned violent.
It comes less than a month after the general election, when Nigel Farage's anti-immigrant Reform UK party captured 14 percent of the vote – one of the largest vote shares for a far-right British party.
The Brexit architect has rallied support in typically Eurosceptic communities by decrying the levels of immigration to the UK, in particular the continued arrivals of migrants on small boats across the Channel.
HOW HAVE POLITICAL LEADERS RESPONDED?
Farage, elected to parliament for the first time last month, has faced criticism of helping to fuel the disorder after he posted a video questioning "whether the truth is being withheld from us" over the Southport attack.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner accused him of stoking "conspiracy theories".
Former counter-terror police chief Neil Basu said Farage was giving the EDL "succour" and "a false basis for the attacks on the police".
Prime Minister Keir Starmer – in power for less than a month – has warned rioters they will "face the full force of the law" as he seeks to quell the growing unrest.
He will host police chiefs from across the country Thursday to discuss the situation.
WHAT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA?
Sites like X have been heavily criticised for spreading misinformation about the Southport stabbings suspect.
Online speculation and unverified information about his identity, faith and background, including claims he was Muslim or an immigrant, have helped fuel anger around the attack, according to experts.
"What happened in Southport was just the spark that then ignited what has been months and months of this diffusion of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant disinformation," hate speech researcher Marc Owen Jones told AFP.
Loughborough University misinformation expert Andrew Chadwick said the events have underlined the need for technology firms to adopt a "better approach" to handling "blatant disinformation".
"With levels of distrust as high as they are in British society of both media and governments and politicians, then it creates this environment which is really, really difficult to manage," he noted.