Boris Johnson condemns 'racist thuggery' of
rightwing protesters in London
PM responds to violence as more than 100 arrests made
during ‘guard our monuments’ protest
Damien
Gayle
@damiengayle
Sat 13 Jun
2020 19.56 BSTFirst published on Sat 13 Jun 2020 17.52 BST
Boris
Johnson has condemned violence by protesters in central London on Saturday as
“racist thuggery” in a post on Twitter. “Anyone attacking the police will be
met with full force of the law. These marches and protests have been subverted
by violence and breach current guidelines,” he wrote.
The prime
minister continued: “Racism has no part in the UK and we must work together to
make that a reality.”
Boris
Johnson #StayAlert
✔
@BorisJohnson
Racist
thuggery has no place on our streets. Anyone attacking the police will be met
with full force of the law. These marches & protests have been subverted by
violence and breach current guidelines. Racism has no part in the UK and we
must work together to make that a reality.
54.2K
8:27 PM -
Jun 13, 2020
By 9pm on
Saturday, police were reporting they had made more than 100 arrests “for
offences including breach of the peace, violent disorder, assault on officers,
possession of an offensive weapon, possession of class A drugs, and drunk and
disorder”.
At one
point, the demonstrators, who included far-right activists, took over
Parliament Square and pelted mounted police with bottles, cans and a smoke
canister. Later on, as police in riot gear formed lines to contain protesters
in the square, they also came under attack from a hail of bottles and cans.
By about
5.30pm, London ambulance service said it had treated 15 people for injuries,
including two police officers. Six of them, all members of the public, had to
be taken to hospital.
Saturday’s
demonstration was in response to a social media callout to “protect the
monuments”, after graffiti on the statue of Winston Churchill and the Cenotaph
in London, and the toppling of the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston in
Bristol, during Black Lives Matter protests last weekend.
By about
11am several thousand mainly white protesters had gathered, many of them
drinking. At points they chanted the name of the far-right figurehead Tommy
Robinson, and “Eng-ger-land”.
Statues of
Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi had been boarded off. On the statue of
Churchill, someone had stuck a poster with a message that read: “Do not destroy
our history. Keep our history and learn from it so the same mistakes don’t
happen again.”
Speaking
before the clashes, Paul Golding, the leader of Britain First, said the crowds
had turned out to “guard our monuments”, telling the PA news agency: “I am
extremely fed up with the way that the authorities have allowed two consecutive
weekends of vandalism against our national monuments.
“Anyone who
comes along today to try and vandalise them will probably be dealt with by all
of these Englishmen that turned up, and they’re fed up as well.”
In the
aftermath, Priti Patel condemned the “desecration” of the memorial dedicated to
PC Keith Palmer, killed during the Westminster Bridge attack, after a man was
seen urinating next to it.
In a media
clip in which the home secretary described the man’s actions as “absolutely
appalling and shameful”, she said: “We have seen a small minority behave in
extreme thuggery and violent behaviour today.
“That is
simply unacceptable and the individuals that are basically putting the safety
of our police officers and the safety of the public at risk will expect to face
the full force of the law.”
Patel went
on to say that racism “is simply not acceptable”.
The Labour
leader, Sir Keir Starmer, said the violence shown towards the police had been
“completely unacceptable”. He tweeted: “Today’s protests in London were led by
those intent on causing violence and sowing hate for their own ends. We must
not let them win.”
Earlier,
police had imposed strict conditions on the rightwing rally, and any
counter-demonstration held by BLM protesters, after fears that a meeting of the
two would lead to violence. However, organisers of BLM demonstrations in
central London cancelled their events over fears of conflict. The London
Antifascist Assembly (LAFA), which has opposed nearly every rightwing rally in
London, late on Friday tweeted that it was rescinding its callout.
Several
hundred did rally in Hyde Park, after a callout by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR). A
witness at the scene said protesters made speeches before marching to Marble
Arch and taking a knee. They dispersed soon after seeing suspected scouts from
the opposing demo and fearing a confrontation.
One
protester told the Guardian she was disappointed there had not been a bigger
presence to oppose the presence of the far right. Weyman Bennett, the
co-convenor of SUTR, said: “It’s a disgrace that the far right were allowed to
be involved in thuggery and rioting, and that’s because our prime minister gave
them a green light by not properly supporting the Black Lives Matter movement,
which is a call for equality. Thats what Stand Up To Racism is calling for,
that’s why we stood with some young people in Marble Arch.”
The mayor
of London, Sadiq Khan, who had urged people in Parliament Square to leave by
the 5pm deadline, added his voice to condemn “the shameful scenes of violence,
desecration and racism displayed by the right-wing extremists who gathered in
our city today”. He praised the police, saying they “did a fantastic job to
control the situation” in the face of attacks and abuse.
The crowd
began to disperse around 5pm and by about 6.30pm, police were moving the last
few far-right protesters away from Parliament Square.
Elsewhere
in the country, peaceful anti-racist demonstrations took place. In Brighton,
more than 10,000 protesters attended a Black Lives Matter event in the city
centre, where Sussex police said the demonstration was peaceful and no arrests
were made.
Avon and
Somerset Police said about 300 people attended a demonstration in Bristol city
centre, with two arrests made.
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