LONDON – On Sunday morning, the United Kingdom awoke to streets covered in rubble and smoking garbage after a weekend of far-right, anti-immigration demonstrations – fueled by conspiracy theories circulating on social media – turned violent in seven cities across the country.

Police arrested at least 100 people and riot police wearing helmets and shields were deployed in large numbers as Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to crack down on “extremists”.

On Saturday, groups in Leeds carrying St George’s Cross flags – England’s national flag, regularly flown by far-right groups – chanted “Muslims off our streets” and combined this with the insult that they were criminal child abusers. In the city of Hull, rioters threw bottles and smashed a window of a hotel housing asylum seekers as protesters clashed with police.

What began as targeted anti-immigration demonstrations quickly degenerated into aimless riots. A library in Liverpool, due to reopen in 2023 as a “training for work” facility for people of all abilities, was set on fire.

A police officer in the city was hit on the head with a chair and another was kicked and knocked off his motorcycle. Police in the region confirmed that two officers were taken to hospital with injuries.

Starmer condemned the violence on Saturday, saying the right to freedom of expression and violent unrest were “two very different things”, adding: “There is no excuse for violence of any kind.”

Some of the protests did not end in violence. In the southwestern city of Bristol, groups shouted “We want our country back” while others chanted “England until I die”. There were also clashes with counter-protesters chanting “Racist scum, get off our streets”.

The latest demonstrations follow a week of unrest in the country after three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift dance party in the town of Southport. At the heart of the demonstrations was a conspiracy theory circulating on social media based on the lie that the perpetrator was Muslim, an asylum seeker or both.

Less than three hours after the girls were attacked, AI-generated images showing a man in traditional Muslim clothing brandishing a knife outside the UK Houses of Parliament were shared on X by an account called Europe Invasion. The post has since been viewed over 900,000 times.

A TikTok account with no previous content calling for protests near the attack site also received nearly 60,000 views within hours, a Tech Against Terrorism spokesperson told The Guardian.

And so the nation’s grief for the girls was united only briefly before their hometown of Southport was rocked by violence as a group of mostly white men threw bottles and bricks at police officers and a mosque.

Reporting restrictions that had prevented the name of the suspect, who is under 18, from being disclosed were eventually lifted to stop the spread of misinformation after a false name began circulating online.

The suspect, Axel Rudakubana, 17, was born in the Welsh capital Cardiff and lived for years in a village near Southport, police said. The motive for the stabbings remains unknown.

Yet violence has continued at the hands of an extreme right wing, bolstered by its vote gains in the recent British general election, which has long felt that mass immigration is depleting the country’s resources and threatening its children.

Another sign of the extreme right’s effective online presence is the fact that the call for mobilisation was led by a number of influential figures who, although they have significant followings, are absent on the ground.

Far-right English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, who fled Britain last week where he was due to appear in court for alleged contempt of court, was one of the first to call for nationwide protests, urging his 800,000 X followers to “take to the streets”. Other online personalities such as internet influencer Andrew Tate, who remains in Romania as he prepares for his trial on sex trafficking charges, said in a video on X that the attacker was an “illegal immigrant”.

More than 30 protests were planned for the weekend and thousands of additional riot police are on standby. More demonstrations are expected on Sunday.

Around 100 pro-refugee protesters gathered outside a Rotherham hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers early on Sunday afternoon, chanting “refugees are welcome here” while anti-asylum seeker groups threw objects at the hotel, smashed windows and set fire to a rubbish bin. At least one police officer was injured, according to the BBC.

Britain’s police minister told BBC radio on Sunday that there would be “consequences” for those who “attack our police officers, loot shops, destroy property and intimidate communities.” Numerous police officers across the country also condemned the violence.

Starmer described Sunday’s attack on the hotel as an “organised, violent crime” and condemned the “looting gangs” who set fire to the hotel and spread fear among residents and staff.

The centre-left Labour party won a landslide victory in the British elections in July. However, this leftward shift was accompanied by rising support for the far-right Reform UK party, which received four million votes.

And Labour’s success was due at least in part to the rising popularity of the far right, which split the right-wing vote and caused many Conservative MPs to lose their seats in Parliament.

The recent demonstrations disprove the notion that Starmer’s centre-left government has avoided a growing far-right movement on the continent. Behind his majority there remains an angry and active far-right undercurrent that continues to make its voice heard.