Behind Britain’s Riots: Not Just “Disinformation”

Immigration, double standards, tight-lipped police, and press restrictions

An anti-Israel protest in London. Photo: Alisdare Hickson.

Elon Musk recently posed a public question to Prime Minister Starmer: “Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?” 

The question gave a global airing to the growing perception that policing in the UK has been selective rather than impartial, with anti-immigration protesters treated more harshly than those blocking streets while advocating against climate change or against Israel.  The issues about rule of law and double standards—and about “disinformation” supposedly fueling some of the riots—have emerged as Starmer’s first crisis. They could also have implications in other countries, including the US, where sometimes violent urban street protests, sometimes based on false premises, have become increasingly common in recent years.

The background is that English towns from Sunderland in the north to Weymouth on the south coast have been hit by rioting and civil disorder since the end of July. Gangs of working class, balaclava-wearing white youths have been surrounding and attacking hotels that have been block-booked to house asylum seekers while the asylum applications are processed at glacial pace. In heavily Muslim areas in cities including Birmingham similarly attired mobs, although this time often wearing keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags, have been attacking local hotels and passing journalists. These troubles may now be slightly abating, but certainly will flare up again. 

Musk’s question addresses the widespread view that anti-immigration eruptions are being policed much more harshly than, say, the weekly anti-Israel manifestations clogging London’s streets on Saturdays or the regular road blockings by green groups such as Extinction Rebellion or Just Stop Oil.

The disturbances differ, though, not only in political content. The direct violence of the anti-migrant louts—throwing bricks through windows and setting objects on fire—is an easier thing for the police to target than the anti-Israel marchers’ nurturing of an atmosphere of intimidation that has meant that many British Jews have decided to avoid central London on march days.

Now England’s director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, has stated that anti-terror laws might be used against those involved in organizing the current disorder and rioting. The Terrorism Act gives police the power to hold a suspect for up to 14 days without charge, as opposed to the standard 24 hours (extendable to 36 hours, or 96 hours with the approval of a court). This rarely used law — only 25 people were arrested under it in the most recent recorded year — is only usually used against bona fide terrorists. The law typically hasn’t been used against left-wing, environmental or Muslim protestors.

In the UK as in America, immigration has become a hot political issue. Migration to the UK, both legal and illegal, has exploded since the turn of the millennium. Between 1961 and 1981 the UK experienced net emigration, averaging 20,000 per year, and in the 1980s net immigration stood, on average, in the thousands. For most of the 1990s, annual net migration to the UK had been in the tens of thousands, rising rapidly only towards the end of the decade. By 1999, net migration hit 163,000 per year. 

In 2015 net migration from European Union citizens alone to the UK stood at 184,000, up 10,000 from 2014: 270,000 non-UK EU citizens moved to the UK and 86,000 left. This is part of the explanation of Britain’s Brexit vote in 2016. The Leave campaign’s referendum victory was not all about immigration, as many of its metropolitan detractors claim — sovereignty and democracy had much to do with it too. But immigration was certainly a large part of the reason.

Since Brexit the immigration numbers, both legal and illegal, have not declined; instead, they have soared. Net migration stood at 764,000 in 2022 and 685,000 in 2023. Illegal crossings in small boats across the English Channel numbered 46,000 in 2022 and 29,000 in 2023.

These numbers have created resentment, especially in left-behind, economically deprived parts of England. Into this mix came a mass stabbing attack on a children’s holiday dance workshop in Southport, a suburb of Liverpool, on July 29. Three young girls were killed and Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old youth born in the UK to Rwandan parents, has been charged with their murder. 

It’s unknown whether Rudakubana’s parents were British citizens at the time of his birth, thus immediately entitling him to a UK passport. But Rudakubana certainly would have been entitled to apply for British citizenship by now regardless. The requirement for “indefinite leave to remain” is five years of residency, shorter under certain circumstances but never longer. And a person can then apply for naturalization one year later.   

Here things go a little weird, and the police’s disastrous communications must take their share of blame. The police allowed very little details to be released about the attacks at first, and into this vacuum falsehoods spread like wildfire via social media. A false Muslim name of the assailant was widely shared and the idea took hold that this was some kind of Islamist attack. “Disinformation Fuels Far-Right Riot After U.K. Stabbing,” was the headline over an August 1 New York Times article that said the stabber was born in the UK but did not name him or say where his parents were from. 

British police are reticent about disclosing detailed investigative information, having been burned by miscues in several previous high-profile cases. 

This lack of official communications is the most fertile ground imaginable for internet rumor. In addition, once someone has been charged, what can be reported in the UK is extremely restricted due to sub judice rules that limit press coverage in the interest of protecting the accused’s right to a fair trial.

It has certainly created a vacuum into which those already despairing at levels of immigration can all too easily place their darkest fears.