Southport: More protests planned as PM launches national response to disorder

More than a dozen protests have been planned for the coming days in the wake of the Southport stabbings, as Sir Keir Starmer announced a new “national” response to the violent disorder linking police forces across the country.

The PA news agency found evidence of at least 15 protests advertised online, some calling for participants to bring England flags and a number contain phrases such as “enough is enough”, “save our kids” or “stop the boats”.

The protests are being planned for areas such as Southport, Leeds and Bristol.

Two counter-protests are also being advertised online.

It comes after the 17-year-old charged with the murder of three girls in the knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class appeared at Liverpool Crown Court and was named as Axel Rudakubana, from Banks in Lancashire.

The defendant is charged with the murder of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in Southport on Monday.

He is also charged with the attempted murder of yoga class instructor Leanne Lucas, businessman John Hayes and eight children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as with possession of a kitchen knife with a curved blade.

He was remanded to youth detention accommodation and will next appear in court in October.

The attack, which happened at a dance class on Hart Street in Southport just before midday on Monday, has sparked incidents of violent disorder in some towns in England.

Thousands of people turned out to pay their respects to the victims at a vigil in Southport on Tuesday evening, but violence later erupted outside a mosque in the town with 53 police officers and three police dogs injured.

On Wednesday evening, more than 100 protesters were arrested on Whitehall, where bottles and cans were thrown at police, and violence broke out in Hartlepool, County Durham.

Cleveland Police have so far made 12 arrests, one of which was an 11-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of arson after a police vehicle was set alight.

Police in Manchester confronted another demonstration outside the Holiday Inn on Oldham Road before dispersing the crowd after protesters started throwing beer bottles at officers and members of the public.

During a press conference on Thursday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned “far-right hatred” in the wake of the Southport stabbings as he announced a new “national” response to the violent disorder.

Sir Keir said: “The far right are showing who they are – we have to show who we are in response to that.”

The new “national capability” will involve sharing intelligence, wider deployment of facial recognition technology and criminal behaviour orders to restrict the movement of those involved, Sir Keir said.

The Prime Minister also sounded a note of caution to social media companies after misinformation spread online about the identity of the 17-year-old suspect, including false claims that he was an asylum seeker.

The press conference was held shortly after police chiefs from Scotland Yard, Merseyside and West Yorkshire were summoned to Downing Street for crisis talks with the PM and his ministers following the violence.

He hit out at a “gang of thugs” who descended on Southport to riot following the initial attack, saying that as a result the community had been forced to suffer twice.

Meanwhile, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had been criticised for posting a video on social media after the Southport stabbings where he insinuated the “truth was being held” from the public as to the identity of the attacker.

Posting to X on Thursday evening, the MP for Clacton warned that recent rioting “is nothing” compared to what he believes is to occur.

He said: “We need to start getting tough. We need to use stop and search, regardless of the colour of the skin of anyone that gets stopped.

“We need tougher prison sentences for anybody carrying a knife. We need folks to get real.

“Because I’ll tell you what, what you’ve seen on the streets of Hartlepool, of London, of Southport, is nothing to what could happen over the course of the next few weeks.

“Let’s have proper law and order. But Mr Starmer, just to blame a few far right thugs, to say that’s the root of our problems, doesn’t work.”