London, 5 August 2024 (TDI): Downing Street has confirmed there will be an emergency response meeting on Monday after more than 150 people were apprehended following violence in UK cities and towns over the weekend.
It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned an attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and pledged those involved in unrest would face “the full force of the law”.
Police responded to violent scenes in Middlesbrough, Bolton, Rotherham, and other parts of the UK on Sunday.
The Cobra meeting will come after a sixth day of escalating violence following the fatal stabbing of 3 young girls in Southport last week.
Cobra meetings, or Cobr meetings as they are often also called, are named after Cabinet Office Briefing Room A on Whitehall.
It is an emergency response committee, a get together of ministers, civil servants, intelligence officers, the police, and others appropriate to whatever they are looking into.
The meeting of the emergency committee will be intended to provide the government with an update on the violence over the weekend and the response in the coming days. The relevant ministers and police representatives will also participate.
During the prime minister’s address on Sunday, he warned those involved that they will “regret” taking part.
The prime minister said that people in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we’ve witnessed Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques.
He said that other minority communities singled out, attacks on the police, Nazi salutes in the street, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery.
In Rotherham, at least 10 police officers were wounded with one left unconscious after anti-immigration demonstrators threw planks of wood at officers and sprayed them with fire extinguishers, according to South Yorkshire police.
Some members of the group smashed windows to enter a Holiday Inn Express and a large bin was also set ablaze.
The officer knocked unconscious suffered a head injury, the force said, adding that at least 2 others had suspected broken bones.
