Police brace for more far-right riots as minister warns people about rallies in wake of Southport attack – as it happened | UK news

Today’s UK politics live blog will be closing shortly. Thank you for following it and for sending in your emails. Here is a summary of the day so far:

• Keir Starmer returned to Southport on Friday, visiting the town for the second time this week after Monday’s knife attack. The prime minister met members of the local community, according to the Liverpool Echo, along with metro mayor Steve Rotheram, Merseyside chief constable Serena Kennedy and representatives from the police, faith groups, health services and the education and voluntary sectors. He also paid a visit to Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, where many of the victims of Monday’s attack were treated. Starmer thanked staff for their hard work and professionalism in responding to the attack.

• There is potential for more violence in the wake of the Southport attack, a Home Office minister has said, as he warned those planning on organising further disorder “we will be watching you”. Asked how concerned the government is about the prospect of further disorder on the streets this weekend, David Hanson told LBC Radio: “There is that potential. But I always say to anybody who’s organising this, we will be watching you.”

• John Woodcock, the UK government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, said police should be prepared to step in if it appears troublemakers were travelling to incite riots. Woodcock, who is a crossbench peer, said disinformation contributed to the unrest which broke out in a number of locations around England after the Southport attack. Asked about the best way to prevent the riots, he said protests were sometimes being used as a cover for “violent action”. He said: “People absolutely have the right to protest in this country, but they do not have the right to riot.”

• Newsportu has seen details of at least 19 far-right rallies being planned for the coming days in towns and cities across England. Many of the events are taking place under the banner “enough is enough” and “protect our kids” – the same slogan used by demonstrators outside Downing Street on Wednesday evening.

• Zara Mohammed, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), has said hundreds of mosques across the country will be strengthening their security and protective measures this weekend. Mohammed said on Friday: “Yesterday we hosted a mosque security community briefing and we had representation from hundreds of mosques across the country and there was palpable fear.”

• The campaign group, Stand Up to Racism warned that far-right demonstrations are being organised for this coming weekend in more than 25 towns and cities. It adds that “some of these [demonstrations] are specifically targeting mosques”.

• Nine counter-demonstrations are due to take place this weekend, said Stand Up to Racism. On Saturday, there will be counter-demonstrations in Liverpool, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent, it said. On Sunday, counter-demonstrations are scheduled for Rotherham and Weymouth.

• Nottinghamshire police said it was aware of “two protests that may be taking place in Nottingham city centre this Saturday”, and that there would be a “robust police response” to any disorder.

• South Yorkshire police said it was “aware of a planned protest in Rotherham this weekend” and that there may be “an increased police presence across the county”.

• Thames Valley police said it is aware of a “potential planned protest this weekend in High Wycombe” and that officers would “swiftly respond” if it escalates into violent disorder.

• Liverpool city region mayor Steve Rotheram said he was “concerned” that there could be a “repeat of violence somewhere in the Liverpool city region”, but added: “We know exactly what we’d need to do to ensure that these things are nipped in the bud.” Rotheram also told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that Nigel Farage was giving “legitimacy” to violent rioters and “excusing them”.

• The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said it is aware of calls “to block roads using women and children” and for a march to an Islamic centre in Belfast to be held on Saturday.

• Merseyside police has made seven arrests related to the violent disorder in Southport on Tuesday evening, with further arrests to be made over the coming weeks, the force has said.

• Former head of counter-terrorism policing Neil Basu said Farage “should think very carefully” about “the power of his words”. Asked about comments made by the Reform UK leader, Basu told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Friday: “That is a far-right politician once again trying to direct policing and law and order. He doesn’t speak for tens of millions of people, the prime minister does – who has to serve the whole population, not just the ones he likes.” Basu warned that police forces could be facing a “long, hot summer”.

• The culture secretary said her concern is that “warning signs” are spotted in the future, after former BBC presenter Huw Edwards admitted having indecent images of children. Lisa Nandy asked the BBC to look into whether it can recoup money from Huw Edwards’ pay packet, during a meeting with director general Tim Davie on Thursday. Nandy also appeared to suggest that some of findings of an internal investigation into Edwards should be made public.

• Rachel Reeves has been urged to reverse her “ill-advised” decision to strip most pensioners of their winter fuel payments, or risk millions of people being forced to choose between turning on the heating or preparing a hot meal. Jan Shortt, the general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), one of the UK’s biggest campaigning organisation for older people, has written to the chancellor, noting many older people may “not survive to see the spring or any other season” after the payments are cut.

• Meghan Gallacher, the deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has become the first woman to put herself forward to replace Douglas Ross as leader of the party. Gallacher – considered a rising star of the party – said that Scottish Tories needed “an open leadership contest, debating ideas and the future direction of our party”, the day after the timetable for the contest was announced.

• The governor of the Bank of England has dismissed concerns raised by the Conservatives that the new government’s plans for public sector pay rises would risk stoking inflation and keep interest rates higher for longer. The Bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, told journalists after the rate announcement that the planned pay awards of 5-6% would have a relatively small impact on headline inflation, and suggested it was not a focus for the Bank.

• The Labour government must “change course” on its approach to social care, dozens of sector leaders have said, as they described how announcements this week on funding and charging reforms had been a “bitter pill” to swallow. A letter on behalf of the leaders of 30 organisations in the sector, including Care England, the National Care Forum, Learning Disability England and the Homecare Association, has been sent to health secretary Wes Streeting.

• The boss of Royal London, the UK’s biggest insurance group owned by its members, has expressed caution about Labour’s ambition to use pensions to drive economic growth, as he warned of a “ticking timebomb” and urged the government to make greater saving for retirement a priority. The new chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is launching a landmark pensions review, and pledged a “big bang” for private pension funds, as the government wants to unlock billions of pounds to invest in UK infrastructure and housing.

• Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has said she will be speaking with sporting bodies about “inclusion, fairness and safety” after what she described as an “incredibly uncomfortable watch” when asked about the Olympic boxing controversy. But Nandy said the “biological facts are far more complicated than is being presented on social media” as she spoke about Italian fighter Angela Carini having abandoned her bout against Algeria’s Imane Khelif this week.

• Kemi Badenoch has brought in a Conservative councillor to help on her leadership bid who referred to a female politician in a vulgar manner in a message to another colleague. Badenoch has Tory councillor Oliver Cooper on her team despite it having emerged in legal action that he had sent messages in 2017 about a female councillor to another activist calling her offensive names.

• The new Labour government has shelved £1.3bn of funding pledged by the Conservatives for technology and artificial intelligence projects, putting the future of the UK’s first next-generation supercomputer in doubt. The projects, announced last year, include £800m for the creation of an exascale supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh and a further £500m for the AI Research Resource, which funds computing power for AI.

• The Home Office threatened to forcibly remove a man from the UK who is likely to be a key witness in the inquest of the asylum seeker who died on the Bibby Stockholm barge. Yusuf Deen Kargbo, 20, a boxer who competed for Sierra Leone in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham before claiming asylum, was Leonard Farruku’s roommate on the barge and almost certainly the last person to have seen him alive.

• Speaking at the launch of his Conservative leadership campaign, Robert Jenrick said his position on the European convention on human rights (ECHR) was “crystal clear” when asked by journalists whether he would be prepared to leave the ECHR. Jenrick has previously argued for the UK to leave the convention. The main reason the Conservatives lost the election was continuing a “cycle of broken promises” on immigration, he said at the event in Newark, Nottinghamshire, adding that he wants “to breathe new life into our party”.

• After Jenrick’s campaign launch, the Liberal Democrats said that the Tory leadership hopeful had a “terrible record of failure” and symbolises how his party has “moved further and further away from lifelong Conservative voters”. Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Jenrick is now a symbol of the way the Conservative party has moved further and further away from lifelong Conservative voters in the ‘blue wall’.”

• Scottish ministers are being urged to learn lessons from Wales’s introduction of a “lifesaving” default 20mph speed limit. Green transport spokesperson Mark Ruskell made the plea after figures from Wales showed a drop in casualties on 20mph and 30mph roads in the first three months of 2024, after the lower default speed limit was introduced.

Pensioner body calls on Reeves to reverse cut to winter fuel allowance

Aletha Adu

Rachel Reeves has been urged to reverse her “ill-advised” decision to strip most pensioners of their winter fuel payments, or risk millions of people being forced to choose between turning on the heating or preparing a hot meal.

The chancellor has faced fury from backbenchers, who have questioned how many older people will die of cold as a result of denying about 10 million pensioners the payments.

Jan Shortt, the general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), one of the UK’s biggest campaigning organisation for older people, has written to the chancellor, noting many older people may “not survive to see the spring or any other season” after the payments are cut.

Reeves said she was making “difficult decisions” after she accused the Conservative government of leaving behind £22bn of unfunded commitments that it had “covered up from the country”.

Introducing a means test for the winter fuel payment, where only those on benefits qualify, is expected to cut the number of pensioners receiving the payment from 11.4 million to 1.5 million, saving £1.4bn this financial year.

Shortt said in her letter to the chancellor:

Our members are angered and concerned about your plan to remove the winter fuel payment from older people who do not receive pension credit.

There are already 2 million older people in poverty across the UK. For them, this means living in damp, cold homes, washing in cold water and not using the cooker, all to save money. At least a further 1 million older people live with precarious finances and face growing financial insecurity.”

You can read the full piece here:

The Labour government must “change course” on its approach to social care, dozens of sector leaders have said, as they described how announcements this week on funding and charging reforms had been a “bitter pill” to swallow, reports the PA news agency.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves used a wider speech on public finances on Monday to state that previously delayed adult social care charging reforms will not be taken forward. This was followed by a written statement from care minister Stephen Kinnock late on Tuesday just as parliament entered summer recess, in which he said the government had decided not to go ahead with a fund dedicated to training the social care workforce.

A letter on behalf of the leaders of 30 organisations in the sector, including Care England, the National Care Forum, Learning Disability England and the Homecare Association, has been sent to health secretary Wes Streeting.

It said:

The last few days have raised alarm bells for those working in adult social care and those drawing on care and support services.

Warm words about the economic importance of adult social care and the commitment to identify a cross-party solution to this fundamental public service have rung hollow in light of decisions announced around funding and reform.”

According to the PA news agency, the letter described how “choosing not to progress both charging reform and the training and development fund is a bitter pill for social care in a climate where other public services and their workforces are finally having their contribution recognised”.

The groups called for “positive action on social care”, adding that there is “time, political capital, and the expertise of a united social care sector to make this happen”.

They added:

We urge the government to change course and we stand ready to help you transform social care for the millions who work in it and most vitally, rely upon it.”

The PA news agency reports that just a day after that announcement, Kinnock said the adult social care training and development fund, which was announced in provisional form by the previous government in April, will not be taken forward due to the need to “manage down overall fiscal pressures in 2024-25”.

The minister said the government still intends to provide funding for adult social care “learning and development, with the budget maintained at the level we spent last year”.

The decision was described as “desperately shortsighted” by the Nuffield Trust, which said it “looks like yet another troubling decision to deprioritise social care in order to plug gaps in health funding”.

The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment by the PA news agency.

Keir Starmer returned to Southport on Friday, visiting the town for the second time this week after Monday’s knife attack.

The prime minister met members of the local community, according to the Liverpool Echo, along with metro mayor Steve Rotheram, Merseyside chief constable Serena Kennedy and representatives from the police, faith groups, health services and the education and voluntary sectors.

He also paid a visit to Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, where many of the victims of Monday’s attack were treated. Starmer thanked staff for their hard work and professionalism in responding to the attack.

Mark Brown

A 28-year-old man who took part in violent disorder in Hartlepool sobbed in court as he and his partner admitted criminal charges on Friday.

Ryan Sheers was in tears when he appeared before a district judge at Teesside magistrates court in Middlesbrough.

Sheers and his partner Stephen Mailen, 54, both Hartlepool, admitted violent disorder.

Paul Doney, prosecuting, said Mailen was “constantly in the face of officers” and was gesticulating towards them, shouting, until he was struck on the leg by an officer’s extendable baton.

His partner, Sheers, was trying to push through the police cordon, shouting and refusing to move away. He was bitten on the hip by a police dog, the court heard.

They were granted conditional bail and will be sentenced at Teesside crown court on 2 September.

At the same court three men entered no plea to charges and were remanded in custody until 2 September.

Anthony Allen, 42, of Hartlepool, was charged with violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker. James Elliott, 41, of Hartlepool, was charged with violent disorder. Peter Clark, 47, of no fixed address, was charged with violent disorder and exposure after allegedly showing his buttocks and genitalia to police.

John Barton, 33, of Hartlepool, and Dylan Wiley, 28, of Hartlepool, denied violent disorder and were remanded in custody until 2 September.

Doney told the court that 200 people were in a group which initially met at the Cenotaph in Hartlepool on Wednesday evening and moved towards mosques and a community centre.

Police tried to keep order and came under attack from bricks, eggs and other weapons.

Disorder lasted for several hours and a police car was torched, he said.

Conservative former minister Esther McVey introduced Robert Jenrick on Friday as he launched his bid to be the next Tory leader.

McVey, Conservative MP for Tatton, told the audience at Jenrick’s launch event that the party needed to “get it right” on their choice of leader, and accused the Labour party of having upset the public with their plan to charge VAT on private school fees, on means testing the winter fuel allowance, and in other areas since coming to office.

She told the audience the next Tory leader needed “intellectual rigour and capability”, adding: “Robert has got that.”

According to the PA news agency, Jenrick kicked off his speech by praising members of his Newark constituency as “doers” and “makers” who are “proud of our history, they would never denigrate our country.”

Despite the Tory rout at the general election, Jenrick said:

We defeated Labour, we squeezed Reform, we defied the polls and we won here in Newark.”

He said:

I want to breathe new life into our party with a new spirit in which we respect the membership of this party.”

Part of how the Tories should do this is by ensuring members can choose candidates for elections again, he said. “I want to grow this party. I want to become a mass membership organisation once again,” Jenrick added.

The culture secretary says her concern is that “warning signs” are spotted in the future, after former BBC presenter Huw Edwards admitted having indecent images of children.

Lisa Nandy asked the BBC to look into whether it can recoup money from Huw Edwards’ pay packet, during a meeting with director general Tim Davie on Thursday.

Edwards admitted making indecent photographs, with seven of the 41 images being of the most serious type, earlier in the week, and the BBC acknowledged it knew he was arrested in November.

When asked about her meeting with Davie, Nandy told BBC News:

We had a very robust and frank discussion about the circumstances around the case, and some of the decisions that have been made during that case and also since.

Obviously, I am particularly concerned to make sure that people have confidence in the BBC.

I think the director general made a good start yesterday, in going out to be as open and transparent as possible with the public, both about what the BBC knew but also about why they made the decision they did, and also the use of taxpayers’ money, which is obviously important to a lot of people.”

According to the PA news agency, Nandy also appeared to suggest that some of findings of an internal investigation into Edwards should be made public.

She said:

I think we all recognise there is a job of work to do, to get more information in the public domain, to reassure people, not just about the decisions that have been made but also about the action that the BBC will take going forwards.

My concern is to make sure warning signs are caught, complaints are acted on, that public money is used well, and to make sure as far as is humanly possible that we don’t have a repeat of this situation in the future.”

The Labour MP for Wigan also explained to Sky News that she has “ongoing concerns”, that the BBC needs “futureproofing”, so that whistleblowers are taken seriously and complaints are acted upon.

She added:

There are outstanding issues that the BBC director general has agreed to take away with his board, and come back to me on, and I’ll look forward to continuing those discussions next week.”

Nandy also said that she has asked to see the employment law advice given to the BBC.
She added that Edwards should return his salary, which is estimated to be more than £400,000 last year.

Nandy said that she was “very concerned” that taxpayers money was being used to pay Edwards’ salary, when the newsreader was committing “serious crimes”. She added: “I’ve asked the BBC to look at what’s possible.”

Home Office threatened to deport man likely to be key witness in Bibby Stockholm inquest

Diane Taylor

The Home Office threatened to forcibly remove a man from the UK who is likely to be a key witness in the inquest of the asylum seeker who died on the Bibby Stockholm barge.

Leonard Farruku, 26, an asylum seeker from Albania, was found dead on the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset, used by the Home Office to accommodate hundreds of asylum seekers, on 12 December last year. An inquest is scheduled to open into his death in September 2025.

Yusuf Deen Kargbo, 20, a boxer who competed for Sierra Leone in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham before claiming asylum, was Farruku’s roommate on the barge and almost certainly the last person to have seen him alive.

It was Kargbo who raised the alarm when he woke early on the morning of 12 September, found Farruku was not in his bed in the bunk they shared and that the door of the bathroom was locked with no response when Kargbo repeatedly knocked on the door. Police forced open the bathroom door and discovered Farruku’s body.

After Farruku’s death, Kargbo was moved to Home Office accommodation in Wales but said he was woken up there at 6am two and a half weeks ago, arrested and taken to Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, near Heathrow, because the Home Office had rejected his asylum claim.

You can read the full piece here:

Ben Quinn

Less than three hours after the stabbing attack on Monday that led to the death of three children, an AI-generated image was shared on X by an account called Europe Invasion. It depicted bearded men in traditional Muslim dress outside the Houses of Parliament, one waving a knife, behind a crying child in a union jack T-shirt.

The tweet, which has since been viewed 900,000 times, was captioned: “We must protect our children!” and shared by one of the most potent accounts for misinformation about the Southport stabbings.

AI technology has been used in other ways, including an anti-immigration Facebook group that illustrated a call to attend a rally in Middlesbrough by generating an image of a large crowd at the town’s cenotaph.

Platforms like Suno – which employs AI to generate music complete with vocals and instruments – have been used to create online songs combining references to Southport with xenophobic content. Titles include “Southport Saga” featuring an AI female voice singing lyrics such as “hunt them down somehow”.

Experts have warned that new tools and ways of organising have seen Britain’s fractured far right exploit the Southport attack to unify and rejuvenate its presence on the streets.

In a surge of activity not seen for years, more than 10 protests are being promoted across social media platforms such as X, TikTok and Facebook in the aftermath of violent disorder up and down the country.

Death threats against the UK prime minister, incitement to attack government property and extreme antisemitism were also among the comments on the Telegram channel of one extreme-right outfit this week.

You can read the full news feature by Ben Quinn and Dan Milmo here:

Libby Brooks

Meghan Gallacher, the deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has become the first woman to put herself forward to replace Douglas Ross as leader of the party.

Gallacher – considered a rising star of the party – said that Scottish Tories needed “an open leadership contest, debating ideas and the future direction of our party”, the day after the timetable for the contest was announced, with nominations closing on 22 August and the winner announced on 27 September, over a month before the UK party’s leadership contest concludes.

Two other candidates – current justice spokesperson and former journalist Russell Findlay and Brian Whittle, MSP and former Olympic sprinter – have already put themselves forward, but Gallacher’s declaration was immediately warmly welcomed by two other senior figures who had been thought to be considering standing themselves, veteran MSP Murdo Fraser and Jamie Greene, another highly regarded political performer who was relegated to the backbenches by Ross.