The former head of counter-terror policing today likened the worst of the riots to ‘terrorism’ and called a bid to torch a migrant hotel ‘an attempt at a modern day lynching’.
Neil Basu said thugs who tried to burn down a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham while people were inside should be facing life in jail ‘not a five-year sentence for violent disorder’.
He said the shocking incident on Sunday was an example of a serious act of violence that was ‘designed to cause terror’ and ‘people should look very carefully’ at the legal definition of terrorism.
Six people will today appear in court today charged over the Rotherham hotel attack, as ministers promised hundreds of extra prison spaces and said a ‘standing army’ of 6,000 specialist police officers were at the ready.
It emerged today that Telegram users in far-right groups have been sharing instructions on how to make petrol bombs and an ‘arson manual’ produced by National Socialism/White Power Crew – a Russian neo-Nazi group.
Neil Basu said thugs who tried to burn down a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham while people were inside should be facing life in jail ‘not a five-year sentence for violent disorder’
He said the shocking incident on Sunday was an example of a serious act of violence that was ‘designed to cause terror’
Police were eventually able to push the thugs away from the Holiday Inn Express
Militants have also been plotting attacks on immigration lawyers, with a list of solicitors’ firms and advice agencies shared on a Telegram group with more than 14,000 alongside a call to attack them at a specific time tomorrow night.
Mr Basu, who served as Britain’s leading counter-terror officer from 2018 to 2021, called for long sentences for those guilty of the most serious offences.
‘Trying to set ablaze a building with people inside, whom you have made clear you detest, is an act of violence against people and property with a racial cause designed to intimidate a section of the public – be it Muslims or asylum seekers,’ he told the Guardian.
‘Not only does it fit the definition of terrorism, it is terrorism. It’s nothing short of an attempt at a modern day lynching and the people who did it should be facing life imprisonment, not a five-year sentence for violent disorder.’
Mr Basu also called for those organising the violence to face prosecution.
‘We overestimate the intelligence of thugs. They don’t think about the consequences of their actions until it’s too late, but jail a few and the others will run back under cover. They are bullies and cowards,’ he said.
Mr Basu has in the past been criticised for controversial interventions, including urging the Metropolitan Police to accept it is still institutionally racist and saying positive discrimination may be necessary.
His call to treat rioters as terrorists contrasted with those by Jonathan Hall KC, the Government’s independent reviewer of terror legislation, who called for caution.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I think that you need to be cautious about applying counter-terrorism in effectively a live incident, it could be escalatory.
‘You’ll end up with finger pointing one group will start saying well if you’re calling these people terrorists, why don’t you call these people terrorists.’
PLYMOUTH: Police were out in force in Plymouth last night, where a rally turned ugly
PLYMOUTH: Police detain a man following violent clashes in the south coast city
As MailOnline revealed, English Defence League founder Mr Robinson was stoking the race riots with a series of video rants on X while he was on holiday in Cyprus.
In his own interview with the BBC, Mr Basu said the orgy of violence had been triggered by ‘lies spread through social media’ and ‘we need to do something about that’.
He said there were gaps in the laws relating to hateful extremism that needed to be filled, particularly to stop Robinson ‘glorifying and creating violence from his sunbed in the Mediterranean’.
Ministers have been locked with a war of words with X owner Elon Musk over his inflammatory comments about the riots.
Downing Street yesterday rebuked the billionaire for using his platform to claim that ‘civil war is inevitable’ below a video of rioters setting off fireworks at police, with Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman saying there was ‘no justification’ for the comments.
A few hours later, Mr Musk – the richest man in the world worth over $200billion – criticised Sir Keir directly by responding to a video posted by the PM stressing attacks on mosques and Muslims would not be tolerated.
Mr Musk, who has 193million global followers, replied asking Sir Keir: ‘Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?‘
Justice minister Heidi Alexander has since weighed into the row, calling the mogul’s comments ‘deplorable’.
Their clashes came as Cabinet ministers blamed social media for allowing hate and fake news to be spread, leading to violent protests by the far-right that have seen migrant hotels and mosques attacked in the wake of the Southport stabbings a week ago.
BIRMINGHAM: Young men, some in masks, gathered yesterday outside a McDonald’s in Bordesley Green amid rumours of a far-right gathering
BIRMINGHAM: Men wearing masks and waving Palestine flags gather in Birmingham yesterday
Last night hundreds of far-right activists and anti-racist protesters came face-to-face in Plymouth, where beer bottles, flares and a crutch were flung through the air, leaving police officers injured.
And in Birmingham a Sky News van was attacked by a knife-wielding man after Muslim people gathered amid claims far-right groups would target the Small Health area.
A group were later filmed attacking a pub, the Clumsy Swan, with Muslim elders later visiting to apologise.
A GP surgery in Birmingham also closed as hundreds of Muslim people turned out to counter a rumoured far-right gathering.
Police later said they were probing assault, criminal damage and attacks on cars – but that the far-right mob never materialised.
Anti-Muslim hate crime charity Tell Mama has urged Muslims to stay at home and ‘not be baited by far-right thugs’.
Police were pelted with bricks last night as violence erupted near a mosque in Darlington, County Durham.
Trouble erupted at 9pm when two groups gathered in North Lodge Park in the town, close to the Jamia Mosque & Islamic Society Of Darlington.
Both Asian and white youths were involved in the violent disorder which saw Durham Constabulary backed up by colleagues from the neighbouring Northumbria and Cleveland forces. One youth was arrested.
Darlington’s newly elected Labour MP Lola McEvoy has condemned the violence, saying Darlington has long embraced its Muslim community and added: ‘Everyone who lives here must be allowed to live their lives happily and in peace.’
Disorder also continued last night in areas of Belfast.
The Police Service of Northern has said its officers came under sustained attack from multiple petrol bombs, heavy masonry and bricks in the south of the city.
Today Ms Alexander vowed there were sufficient prison spaces available to accommodate riot thugs.
‘We will make sure that anyone who is given a custodial sentence as a result of the riots and disorder, there will be a prison place waiting for them,’ she warned on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
BIRMINGHAM: Pubgoers screamed as protesters faced off against a man outside – before he was kicked to the floor
BELFAST: Disorder also continued last night Northern Ireland, with this video showing a petrol bomb being hurled at police
HUDDERSFIELD: Shops in Huddersfield closed early as claims of a planned protest in the town spread on social media
SOUTHPORT: In contrast to riots across the country, locals turned out in Southport to lay flowers and teddies and blow bubbles
The minister said some 567 additional spaces would soon come into use.
Extra cells at HMP Stocken, Rutland, will be in use from ‘next week’, she said, with plans also in place to use space at Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution in Kent for adult prisoners.
She also revealed more detail about the planned ‘standing army’ of police officers Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced on Monday afternoon.
Ms Alexander told Times Radio: ‘These are police officers who have had specialist training in dealing with public order offences.
‘We had 4,000 available at the weekend. There will be another 2,000 available this week. It also means that police officers are able to be deployed in parts of the country where they are needed most.’
Elsewhere, she said courts ‘could possibly’ begin sitting ‘through the evening, the night, at weekends’ in order to swiftly prosecute rioters.
The additional courts protocol, which was created in the aftermath of the 2011 riots, could be invoked in areas where police and prosecuting chiefs feel it is needed, the minister also told LBC.
The courts are now ‘willing to consider any of those requests’, according to Ms Alexander.
The Government’s toughening stance comes as South Yorkshire police said people have been charged with offences following rioting outside a hotel in Rotherham on Sunday.
Lee Crisp, 42, of Mount Road, Grimethorpe; Christopher Rodgers, 38, of Millmoor Road, Barnsley; and Liam Grey, 20, of Randerson Drive, Mexborough; have been charged with violent disorder.
Two boys aged 16 and 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have also been charged with violent disorder.
Downing Street last night rebuked Elon Musk, the owner of X, for using his platform to claim that ‘civil war is inevitable’
Musk had earlier replied to a tweet by right-wing commentator Ashley St Clair, who said far-right rioting was down to ‘the effects of mass migration’, by suggesting ‘civil war is inevitable’
Sir Keir said: ‘We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities.’ In response, Mr Musk wrote: ‘Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?’
Mr Musk later hit out at British police last night as he responded to an offensive cartoon
Joshua Simpson, 26, of Sherbrook Street, Lincoln, has been charged with violent disorder and assault of an emergency worker.
Today, former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq said relatives in Rotherham have felt unable to go out and live normally amid the ‘frightening’ violence.
He told Sky News: ‘We’re not so far away either, it’s really worrying times for all of us concerned.’
Meanwhile, Avon and Somerset Police said a third man has been charged in connection with violent disorder in Bristol city centre on Saturday
Ashley Harris, 36, of Chipperfield Drive, Kingswood, has been charged with violent disorder and is due to appear at Bristol Magistrates’ Court later on Tuesday.
Two other men, aged 45 and 39, were charged with Section 4 public order offences on Sunday and are due in court in September.
In Plymouth on Monday night, ‘several officers’ suffered minor injuries and two members of the public were taken to hospital, Devon and Cornwall Police said.
Sir Keir Starmer, pictured at Downing Street today, has criticised Elon Musk
In Southport, hundreds of people attended a peaceful vigil yesterday evening a week on from the murders of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar.
Children blew bubbles and others left flowers and heart-shaped balloons on Monday evening in remembrance of the victims of the stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.
Merseyside Police have since said one child caught up in the incident remained in hospital but all other patients had been discharged.
Incorrect rumours, that the suspect in the stabbings was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a small boat spread via social media, appear to have fuelled the unrest.
Today, the Archbishop of Canterbury said people involved in violent riots ‘defile the flag that they wrap themselves in’.
The Church of England leader spoke of ‘manipulation’ through social media and ‘by people abroad’, which he said must be ‘strongly resisted’.
