British Prime Minister speaks of ‘standing army’ of police to deal with riots in Britain

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that a “standing army” of specialized police officers would be put in place to deal with riots and the justice system would be strengthened to deal with hundreds of arrests after violent unrest rocked cities across the country over the past week.

Starmer called an urgent meeting after acts of indiscipline he blamed on far-right activists and misinformation on social media that stoked anger at a Knife attack in dance class which left three girls dead and many injured. False rumors The online spread of information that the suspect was a Muslim and an asylum seeker led to attacks on immigrants and Muslims.

“Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not a protest. This is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” Starmer said. “The law will be applied to the fullest extent necessary against all those who took part in these activities.”

On Sunday, angry protesters attacked two hotels housing asylum seekers, smashing windows and setting fires before police dispersed the crowd and residents were evacuated. Dozens of police officers have been hospitalized with injuries in the past six days after being hit with bricks, bottles and large wooden poles.

Oliver Coppard, the mayor of South Yorkshire, where one of the hotels was attacked, blamed the violence on “far-right thugs”.

“As Keir said, as any decent person has said, I think these are far-right thugs who have attacked some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and there is absolutely no excuse,” Coppard told the BBC. “There can be no excuse for trying to burn alive 200 of the most vulnerable people in our community.”

A spokesman for Starmer said no request had been made to call in the army.

The Interior Ministry, responsible for maintaining public order, has offered mosques greater protection under a new “rapid response process” designed to quickly address the threat of further attacks on places of worship.

Starmer’s spokesman said after the meeting that social media had not done enough to prevent the spread of false information that has fuelled far-right violence and vowed that anyone stirring up unrest – online or on the streets – could be jailed. Some of this false and misleading information comes from foreign states.

“The misinformation we’ve seen online is amplified by known bot activity, which, as I said, can be linked to state-sponsored activity,” the spokesperson said in a readout of the meeting.