As far-right violence in England and Northern Ireland continued for a seventh day on Monday, the justice minister said “prison awaits” anyone who causes disorder and riots.
Police officers were attacked and injured in Plymouth, Belfast and Darlington on Monday and around 400 people have been arrested since the Southport stabbing attack a week ago when rioting began.
“We will ensure that anyone given a prison sentence as a result of rioting and disorder serves time in prison,” Justice Minister Heidi Alexander told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Alexander said the government has responded to the unrest by adding 567 prison capacity, with more expected by the end of the month.
The move comes just weeks after the government announced it would release thousands of prisoners in England and Wales who have completed 40 percent of their sentences early to tackle a looming overcrowding crisis.
The justice minister said the new prison space would be provided at Stocken Prison in Rutland and Cookham Wood Juvenile Corrections in Kent.
“I am confident that prison space will be made available to ensure that those committing these abhorrent acts on our streets and in our communities can serve their sentences behind bars,” Alexander said.
On Monday, as the unrest continued for a seventh day, Plymouth’s Labour MP, Jemima Raine, said it had been a “fairly gruesome” night in the Devon port city with police officers injured in “sustained violence”. Several officers suffered minor injuries and two members of the public were taken to hospital.
Lane said it was disturbing to see the city “in the middle of a racism tour.” Around 150 police officers were deployed in the city center to try to break up counter-demonstrations as masked anti-immigration protesters fired missiles at counter-demonstrators holding signs reading “No place for hate” and “Say no to Nazis.”
“I’m very angry that so many people from outside the city feel comfortable coming here and causing all this chaos and mayhem,” Mr Lane told the Today show.
“What happened last night is not a reflection of who our city is,” Lane said, blaming people from outside the city for coming in and “causing trouble.” “That’s really not the essence of Plymouth.”
Devon and Cornwall Police said six people were arrested in Plymouth after bricks and fireworks were thrown at officers.
In Belfast, social media footage showed police officers coming under missile fire in the Donegall Road and Sandy Row area – the same area where two businesses were attacked on Saturday.
Durham Police said an 18-year-old man has been arrested after a disturbance in Darlington on Monday evening saw a brick being thrown at officers.
Police said dozens of officers were dispatched to the North Lodge Park area after two large groups of men gathered just after 9pm, which resulted in “small-scale violence which led to bricks being thrown at officers who responded to the scene.”
More than 20 people accused of taking part in the riots appeared in magistrates’ courts in England and Northern Ireland on Monday after the government promised “speedy trials”. The charges include rioting, assault, arson and resisting police arrest, and the defendants range in age from 14 to 69.
Neil Basu, a former UK counter-terrorism chief, said the weekend unrest, in which rioters set fire to a library, looted shops and attacked a hotel housing asylum seekers, should be treated as terrorism.
Asked whether charges should be made tougher, Mr Alexander said that was a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service.
“A range of crimes would have been committed,” Alexander said, declining to agree with Bass’s classification of the unrest as a terrorist act. “Certainly serious crimes would have been committed that would carry very significant prison terms.”
Asked how long he expected the unrest to last, Alexander said he didn’t have a “crystal ball” but the government would “do everything possible” to end it.
“We want to get this over with as quickly as possible because we cannot continue to let what we’ve seen continue,” she said. “We’ve seen blatant criminality, racist attacks and dangerous extremism, and we will not tolerate this in our country.”
