2024 United Kingdom riots

The 2024 United Kingdom riots aka the Robinson Riots and the Farage RiotsExclusive: Half The Country Believes Nigel Farage Is 'Responsible' For The Riots by Kevin Schofield (18 August 2024) HuffPost were a series of violent far-right anti-immigration protests which occurred in more than 20 towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland between July 30th and August 5th, 2024.Explainer: Why are there riots in the UK and who is behind them? (7 August 2024) ReutersWhy are there riots in the UK? (7 August 2024) BBC News The genesis of these riots occurred when false rumors spread online that the suspect of a deadly mass stabbing event was a Muslim immigrant."UK riots show how social media can fuel real-life harm. It’s only getting worse" by Brian Fung, CNN, 2024 August 9 These claims were amplified by noxious far-right personalities such as Nigel Farage, Laurence Fox, Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and Tommy Robinson."Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins reinstated on X as Elon Musk overturns Twitter bans" by Holly Evans, The Independent, 2023 November 6 Twitter was identified as one of the primary outlets that spread the misinformation that fueled the riots. Critics directly linked actions Musk took as CEO of Twitter to the riots, such as disbanding the trust and safety team and setting up a "blue check" system that allowed nefarious actors to boost disinformation propaganda."UK's worst riots in years were incited by online disinformation about asylum seekers", NPR Weekend Edition, Transcript, 2024 August 10
The rioters represented only a tiny minority of the UK population, and the rioting was way out of step with UK public opinion. Even Reform UK voters reacted negatively to the hooliganism."Elon Musk says civil war is coming to the U.K. The British beg to differ." by Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, 2024 August 8"Trying to Capitalize on Anti-Migrant Riots Could Backfire on U.K.’s Far Right" by Amanda Taub, The New York Times, 2024 August 8 The riots also amplified concerns that the far-right was now a significant threat to British society. A poll taken by after the riots showed that 47 percent of Britons professed this belief. This percentage, up 15 points since the previous poll in February 2024, was nearly as high as the percentage of Britons identifying Islamic extremism as a threat. "Almost half of Britons now believe right-wing extremists are a major threat following 2024 riots" by Matthew Smith, YouGov, 2024 August 7 Within days of the rioting beginning, many of the far-right hooligan gatherings were countered by much larger groups of anti-racism protesters that defended hooligan targets such as immigration centers."‘More of us than you’: Thousands of anti-racism protesters turn out to counter far-right rallies in UK" by Christian Edwards and Rob Picheta, CNN, 2024 August 8
==Watching the people get lairy==
===2024 Southport stabbing===
The 2024 Southport stabbing was a mass stabbing which took place at a Taylor Swift–themed yoga and dance workshop at a dance studio in Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom on 29 July 2024. Three young girls Bebe King (aged six), Elsie Dot Stancombe (aged seven) and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (aged nine) were killed in the attack, eight other children and two adults were also injured. Seventeen-year-old perpetrator Axel Muganwa Rudakubana was arrested at the scene but was not identified for several days as he was underage. This initial lack of identification lead to the spread of disinformation falsely identifying an "illegal immigrant" from Africa with an Islamic-sounding name, none of which was true.
===Timeline of the riots===
*July 30th: A vigil in Southport for the three young victims of the Southport stabbing the previous day turns violent due to racist disinformation and outside provocateurs. The mob damages Southport Mosque and attacks police injuring over fifty officers.
*July 31st: The anti-immigrant Enough is Enough rally promoted by Tommy Robinson ends in violent clashes with police outside Downing Street in London. Violent protests occur outside asylum seekers accommodation in Manchester and Aldershot. Disorder also spreads to Middlesborough and Hartlepool.
*August 2nd: Violent protests and attacks on police outside a mosque in Liverpool. Disorder spreads to Sunderland where a police station and an Uber are set on fire.
*August 3rd: Violent protests in Liverpool, Nottingham, Hull, Bristol, Stoke-on-Trent, and Blackpool as the rioters clash with counter-protestors and police. Further incidents in Manchester, Belfast, Leeds, Portsmouth, Blackburn, and Preston.
*August 4th: Violent attacks on asylum seekers accommodation in Rotherham, where windows were smashed and a large rubbish bin set on fire, and Tamworth. Violent protests in Middlesborough and Lancaster saw significant property damage. Further incidents in Hull, Sheffield, Sunderland, Bolton, Solihull and Weymouth.
*August 5th: Petrol bombing of police in Belfast. Pub damaged in Birmingham. Police attacked in Plymouth.
==Identifying the instigators==
The riots, according to Hope not Hate's Joe Mulhall, are indicative of the alt-rights "post organisational" structure: A number of such influencers have been called out for their role in instigating the riots, and a handful have even been prosecuted: 
===Lucy Connolly===
Lucy Connolly, childminder and wife of Tory councillor Raymond Connolly, responded to the stabbing with a Tweet that went viral stating:Wife of Tory councillor bailed over race-hate post by Jon Ironmonger (7 August 2024) BBC Investigations 
Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service special crime and counter terrorism unit, said:Tory politician's wife admits race hate post on X by Kate Bradbrook and Martin Heath (2 September 2024) BBC News 
Connolly pleaded guilty to publishing written material that incited racial hatred,Northampton Tory councillor speaks out after wife pleads guilty to inciting racial hatred by Logan MacLeod (2 September 2024) Northamptonshire Chronicle & Echo and was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison, with Judge Melbourne Inman stating:Woman, 41, sentenced for stirring up racial hatred (17 October 2024) Northamptonshire Police'You have little acceptance for your actions' - What crown court judge said as he sentenced Lucy Connolly by Logan MacLeod (17 October 2024) Northamptonshire Chronicle & EchoTory politician's wife jailed for race hate post by Alice Cunningham & PA Media (17 October 2024) BBC News 
Raymond Connolly resisted pressure to stand down.
===Andrew McIntyre===
Andrew "Stimpy" McIntyre, a neo-Nazi taxi driver from Lancashire, who used his Southport Wake Up Telegram channel to encourage violent disorder and criminal damage. He set the time and location for riots targeting mosques in Southport and Liverpool, as well as drawing up a "hit list" of 39 immigration and asylum service offices to be targeted. He has a history of neo-Nazism, being found to have a copy of Mein Kampf in his possession, having held short-lived memberships of fascist groups Patriotic Alternative and Vanguard Britannica, and previously posting a picture of himself giving the Nazi salute.Twisted Firestarter: “Southport Wake Up” Founder Jailed Thanks To HOPE not hate Investigation by Gregory Davis (6 January 2025) Hope Not HateFar-right Southport riots instigator had history of Nazism and posted about “k*ke ideology” Campaign Against Antisemitism After being identified by Hope not Hate, he was arrested, prosecuted and jailed for seven and a half years.Man jailed for encouraging violent disorder and criminal damage (6 January 2025) Merseyside Police
===Eddie Murray===
Eddie Murray, a Southport resident with two daughters who had been turned away from the dance class before the stabbing, was one of the first to falsely identify the perpetrator as a migrant in a post which read: 
This post was quickly used by the likes of Laurence Fox, Paul Golding and Bernie Spofforth to stoke hatred and fan the flames. When approached Murray, who had falsely been promoted by these instigators as a credible source who had been fact checked and was an eyewitness, said he had only posted what he had been told and he had no regrets about it. Indeed, as the truth came out he continued to cast doubt, stating (with no apparent sense of the irony): 
He even repeated the false backstory and Islamic-sounding name pushed by Spofforth in response to his own post: 
Although he later deleted these posts, he never attempted to correct them.
===Charles-Emmanuel Mikko Rasanen===
Charles-Emmanuel Mikko "Mr AG (AryanizedGoebbelboo)" Rasanen, a Finnish "national socialist" supporter of neo-Nazi groups the Nordic Resistance Movement and Patriotic Alternative,Mr.AG: The Mixed Race Finnish Neo-Nazi Behind the UK’s Race Riots (16 August 2024) Red Flare was an administrator of Andrew McIntyre's Southport Wake Up Telegram channel, which prior to being taken down organised the riots in Southport and Liverpool. the British anti-fascist research group which first identified Rasanen, stated: 
"Something fun for you to read," Rasanen stated as he shared an arson manual prepared by Russian-Ukrainian neo-Nazi group encouraging the targeting of Muslims and Jews, alongside McIntyre's "hit list" of 39 immigration and asylum service offices with the message. He also enquired, "When is the same violence coming to Northern Europe?"
===Other key instigators===
*David "The Emperor" Clews, alt-right activist behind far-right webshite Unity News Network, who live-streamed from his family holiday in Costa Rica to claim, "The Rubicon has been crossed, we need to defend ourselves,"The far-right influencer from Renfrew who fanned flames after Southport killings by Dominic Hauschild (August 10, 2024) The Sunday Times before a sudden about face which saw him shutting off commenting on his Telegram channel to end a "tsunami" of racist commentsFar-right Scottish influencer shuts down social media chat after "tsunami" of racist comments by Mark McGivern (August 10, 2024) Daily Record and heading into exile in Poland to fundraiseFar-right influencer begs for donations after fleeing Scotland as he fears arrest by Mark McGivern (August 17, 2024) Daily Record and avoid any legal repercussions.Clueless Clews does a runner (August 31, 2024) Searchlight 
*Nigel Farage, the most successful failure in the history of British politics, JAQed off while the UK burned, stating, "I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that: I think it’s a fair and legitimate question." Denying any responsibility for the violence, he later claimed to have been mislead by a fake news website, Andrew Tate and Russian state media."Nigel Farage refuses to apologise over claims made about Southport attacker being known to police" (6 August 2024) LBC Polling shows a majority of the British public do, however, hold him responsible.
*Laurence "Loser Lozza" Fox, failed performer "totally radicalised" by YouTube, spread the false narrative that the stabbing perpetrator was a Muslim immigrant and stated, "We need to permanently remove Islam from Great Britain". He also called PM Keir Starmer a "traitor" and claimed, "This pathetic government has waged war on its own people to protect the feelings of the invaders." He then patriotically fled to Ireland to avoid any fall out.Fox seen on flight to Ireland as Starmer vows crackdown on far-right (5 August 2024) The Lead
*Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon, fascist co-leaders of paramilitary nationalist group Britain First, pushed false claims that the stabbing perpetrator was a Muslim immigrant, with the former retweeting Murray's identification with the claim, "stacking up that the Southport attack was carried out by a migrant" and the latter stating "White Christian teens don’t stab children, Islamists do."UK riots: How far-right actors capitalized on public anger by Anchal Vohra (7 August 2024) DW News The also shared false claims about two-tier policing and Simon posted the conspiracy theory about the UK building "detainment camps" on the Falkland Islands for rioters, later reshared by Musk.X ran ads on five accounts pushing lies and hate during UK riots by Anchal Vohra (7 August 2024) Center for Countering Digital Hate
*Elon "Space Karen" Musk, former illegal immigrant radicalised by his own platform, was called out by British PM Keir Starmer for fanning the flames by tweeting, "civil war is inevitable". Musk reacted to this by calling the PM "Two-tier Kier", calling UK authorities "woke Stasi""Where are the brave inciters of Britain’s race riots? From Tommy to Elon, they’re far, far away" by Marina Hyde, The Guardian, 2024 August 6"Elon Musk engages with Tommy Robinson as social media warned over misinformation" by Martyn Landi, The Independent, 2024 August 2"Elon Musk Won’t Quit Trying to Stoke Civil War in the U.K." by Paige Oamek, New Republic, 2024 August 9"Elon Musk launches Twitter tirade over far-right riots as minister brands billionaire ‘deeply irresponsible’" by Millie Cooke, Independent, 2024 August 6 and sharing (then quickly deleting) a fake news image that promoting a conspiracy theory about the UK building "detainment camps" on the Falkland Islands for rioters."Musk shares faked far-right 'detainment camp' for rioters post", BBC, 2024 August 8
*Tommy "Ten Names" Robinson, far-right racist rabble-rouser and founder of the Islamophobic English Defence League (EDL), who rallied his football hooligan foot soldiers from his family holiday in Cyprus with false identification of the stabbing perpetrator and fabricated concerns of two-tier policing, which falsely claims the UK polices white Britons more harshly than ethnic minorities.Actors, activists and conspiracy theorists – a guide to the British far right by Ben Quinn (August 7, 2024) The Guardian Polling shows a majority of the British public holds him responsible for the riots.
*Bernie Spofforth, denialist and conspiracy theorist, who made the earliest known attribution of the Islamic-sounding name Ali-Al-Shakati to the stabbing perpetrator.Southport attack misinformation fuels far-right discourse on social media by Tom Cheshire and Sam Doak (31 July 2024) Sky News She was arrested and held in custody for 36 hours by Cheshire police on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racist hatred and false communications,The real story of the news website accused of fuelling riots by Marianna Spring (8 August 2024) BBC Verrify but was released with the announcement that no further action would be taken due to insufficient evidence.No charge over spreading of Southport misinformation by Paul Burnell & PA Media (18 September 2024) BBC News
*Andrew Tate, personality cult leader and so-called "king of toxic masculinity," who spread the rumour that the stabbing perpetrator crossed the channel as an "illegal migrant" in a small boat in 2016, which was immediatly picked up by Farage. Tate admitted in an interview with Piers Morgan that he got the details wrong but denied any responsibility for the ensuing violence.Andrew Tate admits he was wrong about Southport suspect but claims he is ‘not reason riots started’ by Oliver Browning (8 August 2024) The Independent.
*Nick Tenconi, COO of Turning Point UK and interim leader of UKIP, was on the street wielding a megaphone at protests which turned violent outside Downing Street on August 1st and in Plymouth on August 5th.
==Putting down the rioters==
Unlike the instigators, many of the rioters have been prosecuted for their actions:
===John Honey===
John Honey, a Patriotic Alternative supporter from HullThe Far Right and the Riots: Paedophiles, Animal Abusers and Former Britain First Members (27 August 2024) Hope Not Hate with a history of planning racist attacks going back to his teens,Teenager confesses plan to 'get rid of Europeans' after walking into police station with four knives by Alex Grove (26 NOV 2018) Hull Live went viral when photographed in a distinctive St George's cross shirt looting sausage rolls from Greggs and bath bombs from Lush.John Honey admits looting and BMW damage in Hull riot by Richard Madden and Pritti Mistry (13 August 2024) BBC News He went on to be involved in the destruction of nine vehicles in a garage and repair shop and a racially-motivated attack on a BMW containing three Romanian men, where he kicked out at the car and yanked at the door. 
In custody he was described as "over confident and jovial" bragging about being "all over social media" and asking probation officers, "if he wanted his autograph because he was famous," suggesting "no remorse." Pleading guilty to violent disorder and three charges of burglary, as well as racially aggravated criminal damage, he was jailed for four years and six months.'Famous' troublemaker John Honey is jailed for his 'central' role in Hull disorder by Mark Naylor (16 AUG 2024) Hull LiveRioter who went viral for looting in England shirt jailed for four and a half years by Albert Tait (16 AUG 2024) The Telegraph
===Brian Spencer===
Brian Spencer, a painter, decorator and father of two from Southport,Revealed: Southport rioter who gyrated suggestively to goad police before being hit by two bricks is a 'party animal' 39-year-old father-of-two by Nick Pisa and Eirian Jane Posser (31 July 2024) Dail Mail went viral when filmed being hit in the head and bollocks by bricks thrown by fellow rioters while attempting to goad police at the Southport riot. A local resident confirmed: 
Picked up by police at a later incident, he was taken to Southport Hospital for treatment, where he verbally abused another patient. Identified from footage of him punching a police vehicle and throwing wheelie bins at officers, he was jailed for two years and six months for violent disorder at the riot and racially/religiously aggravated harassment for the hospital incident.Man who featured in viral social media footage is jailed for violent disorder (23 December 2024) Merseyside Police
===Stacey Vint===
Stacey Vint, a mother of five from Middlesbrough with a criminal record for theft and battery,Woman jailed for pushing burning bin at police by Stuart Whincup and Jonny Manning (9 August 2024) BBC News went viral when filmed at the August 4th Middlesbrough riot falling flat on her face while helping a friend launch a burning wheelie bin at police. Immediately taken into custody after falling behind police lines, she was found to be in possession of a small amount of cannabis. Her barrister explained that, "She is not 'anti-police' or racist," but:Stacey Vint jailed for pushing bin at police in Middlesbrough by Daniel Hordon (9 August 2024) Northern Echo She was sentenced to one year and eight months in jail.Rioting Middlesbrough mum shoved flaming wheelie bin at police then fell flat on her face by Esther Halligan (10 August 2024) Teeside Live
==References==
Category:Alt-right
Category:Anti-immigration
Category:Islamophobia
Category:Racism
Category:Terrorism
Category:White supremacy
Category:Xenophobia