Far right condemned as organising force behind unrest amid fears of more trouble

Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick said ‘elements of the far right’ appear to be involved in the rioting.

People protest in Sunderland city centre (Scott Heppell/PA) (PA Wire)

The far right has drawn condemnation from MPs across the political spectrum after a third night of violence in England, amid fears of further unrest over the weekend.

Sunderland Central Labour MP Lewis Atkinson said a link could be drawn between the disorder in his constituency on Friday and the ashes of the English Defence League (EDL), which was founded by Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon.

The EDL has disbanded but its supporters remain active, and Mr Atkinson said evidence suggested a Nazi offshoot of the group was involved in the violence in his constituency on Friday night which saw a police station torched and a local mosque attacked.

Meanwhile, Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick said “elements of the far right” appear to be involved in the rioting while fellow contender Priti Patel rebuked the “thuggery” and said MPs should unite in condemnation.

Mr Atkinson said he was “really sad” for Sunderland after a group of “racists” descended on the city on Friday evening and attacked police officers, setting a police station and two cars on fire, and targeting a mosque.

He added: “A night of idiots will not prevent us from building.”

Asked how the disorder had happened, Mr Atkinson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that protests had been suggested by people in a number of social media groups in the wake of the Southport stabbings.

“The far right, for example Stephen Yaxley Lennon, picked up on those and started promoting those and encouraging known far right individuals to join,” he said.

Asked whether a link could be drawn with the EDL, he said: “I can draw a link because last night one of the flags on the street bore the reference to the North East Infidels, which is a Nazi, EDL offshoot from the North East chapter of what was the EDL.”

Individuals who were involved with the EDL are “still out there” and need to be kept under surveillance, he said.

Disorder has hit parts of England this week, including in London, Manchester, Southport and Hartlepool, after the killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Merseyside on Monday.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, from Lancashire, is accused of the attack, but false claims spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.

An ⁠extra 70 prosecutors will be drafted in on standby this weekend to charge people who set out to cause violent disorder as the authorities prepare to deal with dozens of further demonstrations planned over the next two days.

Campaign group Hope Not Hate has identified more than 30 events taking place.

Former chief constable of Northumbria Police Sue Sim urged people considering attending protests across the UK to “think very, very carefully before you go” and warned officers would arrest those involved in disorder.

“This incident is being used by people of an apparent far-right tendency to create mass disorder across this country. All I can say is shame on you,” she said.

To those considering attending, she said: “Do you want to cause further pain and heartache to those beautiful little girls’ families?”

Mr Jenrick said “if there is a case” for proscribing the EDL it should be “considered”, when asked by the BBC.

Asked whether he would condemn the far right for organising the disorder, he said: “Yes, absolutely. That there are elements of the far right apparently involved in these protests – we need to ensure that the police have all the support that they need.”

Leadership contender and former home secretary Ms Patel demanded Parliament be recalled over the violence and criticised the Government response, warning: “Saying the nation is ‘braced for disorder’ is not only breathtakingly complacent, but both troubling and inadequate.

“The Government is now in danger of appearing to be swept away with events rather than maintaining control of them.”

She added: “Now is a moment for national reflection and solidarity – to pull back from the wave of violence we have seen, to call it out for what it is – without fear or favour – and for Parliament to speak with one voice in condemnation.”

Mayor of the North East Kim McGuinness praised the people of Sunderland for cleaning up the wreckage of the riot together, which she said showed “the true spirit of what we are as the North East and as Sunderland”.

Thousands of people had turned out to pay their respects to Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, at a vigil in Southport on Tuesday evening.

Violence later erupted outside a mosque in the town with 53 police officers and three police dogs injured, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer later condemning “thugs” who had travelled to the town to cause unrest.

The unrest poses the biggest challenge yet of Sir Keir’s premiership, evoking the scale of public disorder last seen during the 2011 riots.

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

On Thursday, Sir Keir announced a new “national” response to the disorder linking police forces across the country through shared intelligence and the expanded use of facial recognition.

On Friday, hundreds of people gathered in Keel Square in Sunderland, many of them draped in England flags, some of whom chanted support of Tommy Robinson, while others shouted insults about Islam.

Videos posted on social media appeared to show a fire at a city centre police office, which was marked permanently closed on Google Maps and was no longer listed on a police station finder on Northumbria Police’s website.

A mosque was targeted and separate footage on social media, said to have also been filmed in Sunderland, appeared to show a ­man with a swastika tattoo on his back.

Officers from Northumbria Police were “subjected to serious violence” and three were taken to hospital, the force said later.

Eight people have so far been arrested for a range of offences, including violent disorder and burglary, it added.

Education Secretary and minister for women and equalities, and MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, Bridget Phillipson posted on X, saying: “The scenes in our city centre tonight are shocking. We have seen unforgivable violence and thuggery.

“The criminals involved in this appalling disorder must be identified, prosecuted and punished with the full force of the law.”

Rudakubana is also charged with the attempted murders of yoga class instructor Leanne Lucas, businessman John Hayes and eight children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and 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.