What’s the Context?
Protesters against immigration targeting mosques, businesses, and buildings place community resources under greater stress
- Local authorities estimate the cost of damage caused by riots
- Budgets for the council are already stretched
- Donations flood in to benefit rebuild Southport Library
Liverpool – Scorched chairs, tables, and books that have been burned scattered across a floor covered in ash. This is what far-right rioters did to a library in Liverpool after waves of violent disorder took over Britain in the last week.
Spellow Lane Library Hub, located in Walton Northern Liverpool, was set on fire on Saturday night when crowds of rioters took over the northern English city while looting shops, torching bins, and shooting bottles and rocks at emergency vehicles.
Its library was reopened following refurbishment last year, and it is closed.
“This is a valuable community service. I come here almost every Saturday. I’m horrified, shocked, disgusted by what’s gone on,” Kevin McManus, who worked at the library for a long time, said to Context from outside the building.
The streets erupted in a series of English cities this week in the wake of the deaths of three girls who were killed by a knife in Southport on the 29th of July.
In the aftermath, misinformation was quickly dispersed via social media platforms, with extremists of the far right mistakenly identifying the suspected murderer as a Muslim migrant and threatening mosques as a response.
Anti-racism groups have blamed the political statements about migration that imply that asylum seekers are burdening public resources.
A day after the Southport attack, a crowd stood in front of Downing Street in London, chanting, “We want our country back” and “stop the boats.”
This expression was employed to promote the Conservative government, especially before this year’s general elections, which the Labour Party lost.
However, the cleanup and repair costs triggered by the riots could add more stress to already underfunded cities and towns.
“Communities believe [migration] is a legitimate grievance because it’s been drummed into them. There is competition for resources, and the real reason for that is because of austerity,” said Suresh Grover, the founder and Director of The Monitoring Group, a British anti-racism organization.
“The language used in the election, I think it’s one of the worst things I’ve seen in the last 40 years. It has allowed the far right to gather legitimacy.”
Drastic Spending Cuts In The Past Decade
Cities all over Britain have faced drastic spending cuts in the past decade, and government data shows drastic reductions in transportation, housing, and cultural services since 2011.
The budget is over 40% less than at the beginning of the Conservative government’s austerity policy, and the costs of meeting the growing demands for services like homelessness and social services for elderly assistance are growing faster than rising inflation—adequate studies conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Councils in northern England and London had to contend with the biggest per-person cut because of how they are funded, and the study showed that the areas already struggling were the most brutal hit.
“If you go to Southport, where the three girls were killed, there are shops closed in the city centre, the pier is closed,” Grover explained. “If you wanted something to honour those girls, it would be to actually restore and invest in that town.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the protests as “far-right thuggery” and warned those involved to feel they were under the “full force of the law.”
Nearly 400 individuals have been detained to date.
The far-right was expected to hold more protests on Wednesday. Still, instead, thousands of people marched in the streets of cities like Bristol, Liverpool, and London to protest against Islamophobia and racism.
“I think the show of force from the police, and frankly, the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we’ve seen,” London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said to reporters.
A campaign to raise funds to get Spellow Lane Library Hub back on its feet received more than PS200,000 in donations in just five days.
“Liverpool has got a really proud history of rejecting fascism and rejecting the far right,” said the city’s resident, Liam Royle.
“People need to stop throwing bricks and turn to those who need to change things – the politicians. Those who maintain the class divide.”
U.K. Politicians Playing With The Fire
The media’s coverage has affected public discourse and policy. The year 2022 was the month that then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda when their applications were processed.
The issue of refugee accommodation and its associated cost is a significant topic in both the Parliament and news reports, prompting ministers to begin housing potential asylum seekers in a barge without windows.
Additionally, during the U.K.’s recent general elections in July 2024, two of the nation’s two major political parties, the ruling Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party, made promises to be “tough on immigration” as part of their campaign.
The far-right had already taken advantage of these issues. In 2022, anti-migrant protesters were reported to be present at housing for asylum seekers and migrants 253 times, which is a 102 percent boost from 2021 to the organization Anticipate Not Hate.
Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, also recorded a variety of videos in hotels that house asylum seekers in 2020 and told the camera, “We’ve no idea whether some of these might be ISIS.”