Subscriptions
Read Our Monthly Magazine
And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
Britain’s streets have been shaken by a series of riots that have led to significant damage to public and private property across Leeds, Southport, Southend on Sea, Bristol, Rotherham, Bolton, Middlesborough, Manchester, and Hartlepool – with more unrest planned in the days ahead.
The chaos appears to have been created and amplified by right-wing agitators, intent on encouraging divisions by promoting Islamophobic conspiracy theories that present Muslims as a cultural threat to Britain.
But we must be honest about the fact that it is not only fringe rabble-rousers who have engaged in this kind of rhetoric. Some senior politicians from mainstream parties, as well as government appointees, have helped to set the mood music for such violence through a gradual normalisation of the demonisation of Muslims and refugees in this country. Both share culpability for what is now unfolding.
It began after the killings of three children in Southport. Soon after, the town was subjected to a campaign of terror and mass thuggery by supporters of the far-right figurehead, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (known as ‘Tommy Robinson’), who falsely alluded to the suspect being a Muslim asylum seeker. Yaxley-Lennon has long been a cause célèbre for the far-right, and is known to have received support from a nexus of pro-Israel, Islamophobic think tanks and individuals over the years.
The Politics of Farage and Reform is No Joke of a Matter – The Established Media Must Learn Its Lessons and Start Holding Them to Account
The normalisation of racism and dog-whistles will only get worse if the press continues to treat Farage as an entertaining figure representing the ‘real views’ of the British people – it must stop, writes Byline Times’ Editor
Others jumped aboard the effort to blame ‘multiculturalism’ for the killings and the unrest that followed.
Reform Leader and MP Nigel Farage – who Neil Basu, the former head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police accused of inciting violence – and actor-turned-far-right influencer Laurence Fox.
Although police swiftly quashed the idea that the suspect had any connection to Islam, the disinformation had already spread like wildfire on social media – catalysing days of anti-refugee, anti-Muslim, protests. Hotels housing refugees have been set alight. Asian-owned stores and people perceived as Muslim have been openly attacked. Shops have been looted. Scores of police officers have been injured in confrontations with rioters. Hundreds of arrests have been made.
While it is easy to focus on how these protests have been aided and abetted by the ‘usual suspects’, there can be little room for doubt that more mainstream political figures have also enabled this far-right resurgence, directly through employing extremist rhetoric themselves.
Going back years, we can find numerous examples of senior Conservative Government officials deploying rhetoric that dehumanises Muslims and refugees, with these groups often framed as a ‘fifth-column’ who refuse to assimilate into Britain or respect British institutions.
We have been told that refugees crossing the English Channel are at odds with “British values”. Gaza solidarity marches have been characterised as “hate marches”, “Islamist”, and “extremist”. Some have even appeared to claim that the Gaza protests pose a kind of existential threat to British culture.
