UK riots live: Tamworth and Rotherham hotels torched as Starmer to hold Cobra meeting

A Black man beaten by a mob, an Asian man stabbed at a train station and mosques under siege – just some of the horrifying racist incidents carried out by far-right thugs in England this week.

The country has been engulfed by racist riots over the past few days, in the wake of the killings of three young girls in Southport on Monday. Protests in cities including Liverpool, Leeds and Belfast descended into chaos over the weekend, with far right thugs clashing with riot police and multiple incidents of ethnic minorities attacked on the streets.

Sparked by Islamophobic and racist sentiments, rioters have pelted bricks, chairs and bottles at officers, mosques have been attacked, shops looted and numerous community facilities across the country, including a library and Citizens Advice Bureau building, have been torched in the violence.

The Independent’s Race Correspondent Nadine White reports:

Courts will reportedly sit for 24-hours a day in the wake of far-right violence sweeping across the country.

Ministers met with senior members of the judiciary for emergency talks on Saturday as the far-right clashed with police and counter-protesters in major UK cities and towns.

Violence broke out between groups in places such as Sunderland, Manchester, Stoke and Hull as shocking footage showed people throwing bricks at police in Liverpool, where two officers were hospitalised, one with a suspected broken jaw and another with a broken nose.

Officials at the Ministry of Justice are now understood to be in discussions with the judiciary, police chiefs and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), about magistrates’ courts sitting for 24 hours to deal with a surge of arrests, The Telegraph reported.

A resident in Middlesbrough condemned the violence on the streets and pointed out that “this has got nothing to do with three little girls that have lost their lives” in Southport.

“They’ve used it to cause utter mayhem on our streets,” the resident was quoted as saying by Press Association.

Nearly 300 people reportedly gathered in front of a mosque on Waterloo Road to protect it from the thugs while police blocked off nearby streets.

The resident said: “We’re going to be paying for this, and for what?”

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon aka Tommy Robinson has been blamed for stoking the riots from his Cyprus holiday resort by posting “inflammatory online posts”.

He is believed to have left the country earlier last week after a judge issued an arrest warrant.

The Daily Mail pictured him on its front page and accused him of “stoking riots from his sunbed”.

Joe Mulhall, director of research at anti-fascism organisation Hope Not Hate, told The Guardian that people like Robinson act as “weathermakers” who spread misleading videos online about issues like migrant boats and child grooming gangs.

A far-right activist, Robinson was permanently banned from X in March 2018 but reinstated in November last year after Elon Musk took over the platform.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer added the police have his “full support” to take action against “extremists” attempting to “sow hate” by intimidating communities as he held emergency talks with ministers over the unrest in parts of England.

Humza Yousaf has called for the army to be called in to stop “thugs” causing disorder on the streets.

“It doesn’t look like, to me, the police have a handle on the situation,” the former first minister of Scotland said. “The police have not been able to protect those that are in the Holiday Inn,” he added.

“The army can help to get control where the police are unable.”