Far-right riots: UK Labour Party 'ordered MPs not to join anti-racist protests'
The UK’s ruling Labour Party allegedly ordered its MPs not to attend anti-racist demonstrations on Wednesday.
According to journalist Owen Jones, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Chief Whip Alan Campbell made the order “via a virtual call” on Wednesday morning.
Jones is a former member of the party and was part of its left-wing faction before quitting because of Labour's centrist turn under Keir Starmer.
On Wednesday morning it was reported that police had intelligence of around 100 far-right demonstrations across Britain planned for the evening, following a week of violent anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant riots.
Ultimately the rumoured far-right mobilisation failed to materialise. Instead, thousands of anti-racist protesters poured onto the streets in a show of defiance against the far right.
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Up to 25,000 turned out in cities across the country, in almost all cases outnumbering anti-immigration demonstrators.
Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, attended an anti-racism demonstration in Norwich, apparently in defiance of his party's ban.
“It was a fantastic atmosphere,” Lewis told Sky News on Thursday morning.
“You know, the racist and fascist thugs that have been rampaging across this country, they’re a minority.
"But last week, they looked like they were the majority but I think from the pictures you’re showing and what we saw in Norwich, what we have seen in Northampton, from what we’ve seen in Walthamstow, in Finchley, in towns and cities and communities across the country, we are the many, they are the few.”
Labour also ordered councillors “not to take part in, attend, or encourage others to attend, any sort of demonstration or counter demonstration”, according to an image posted online by Jones.
He posted a screenshot purportedly of a letter from the Labour Local Government Team saying: “Our emergency services are under extreme pressure, and counter demonstrations - however well meaning - make their job significantly harder.”
The team noted that not joining counter-protests was police guidance.
But on Thursday morning the Metropolitan Police commissioner in London, Mark Rowley, said he was “really pleased with how it [Wednesday evening] went”.
He appeared to credit counter-demonstrators with helping discourage disorder, saying: “We put thousands of officers on the streets and I think the show of force from the police and, frankly, the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we’ve seen.”
On Thursday afternoon a Labour councillor in Kent, Ricky Jones, was suspended for saying at a protest in Walthamstow: “They are disgusting Nazi fascists and we need to cut all their throats and get rid of them all.”
Middle East Eye has contacted the Labour Party and Clive Lewis MP for comment.
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