Northern Ireland secretary condemns Belfast riots as ‘racist thuggery’ after 12 police officers injured – UK politics live

Northern Ireland secretary condemns Belfast riots as ‘racist thuggery’ after 12 police officers injured – UK politics live

This comes after a second night of violent unrest in the area, where police used a water cannon to disperse a crowd of about 300 people who burned a truck and threw bricks and petrol bombs close to the Sandyknowes roundabout near Newtownabbey, eight miles north of Belfast.

Twelve police officers were injured and 16 arrests were made in the second night of unrest, Benn said. There was video footage of dozens of men dressed all in black and wearing face coverings gathering on Antrim Road, where they could be seen tearing bricks from properties and smashing paving stones with sledgehammers to create projectiles to throw at police.

Rioters attempted to set fire to a derelict property near a petrol station in Newtownabbey, with some throwing petrol bombs at police lines. They could also be seen taking wheelie bins from outside homes and lighting fires in them. Some of these protesters reportedly planned to target a nearby hotel that was believed to host migrants.

These anti-immigration protests, some of which turned violent, started on Tuesday in response to a knife attack. Sudanese 30-year-old Hadi Alodid, of Duncairn Avenue, Belfast, was charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie on Monday. He was further charged with possessing a knife in a public place, Kinnaird Avenue, on the same day.

The Guardian’s report from Wednesday night described scenes of demonstrators tearing up a garden fence to use as a barricade and shield – and using tyres, furniture and wheelie bins to start a large fire. A white van was driven into the flames reportedly by a man who left it in gear, and jumped out. Police tried to extinguish the flames.

Now, Benn is accusing people online of trying to incite disorder in Belfast. This comes as figures including Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk have been posting about the riots online – including a list of protest locations posted by Robinson, accompanied by the caption describing the attack as “yet another invader attack on our people”. Later, he claimed that they are “not my protests” and said he was “merely passing on information”.

When asked by BBC Breakfast this morning about the alleged incidents of people’s addresses being shared on social media so that their homes could become targets of potential hate, Benn said: “It is completely unacceptable to direct someone to a particular address because you say, or you think you know, that a particular person lives there.

“The vast majority of people would be very shocked to know that was going on and the social media companies have a responsibility to take down illegal content, particularly when we’ve been seeing circumstances like we have in Northern Ireland recently.”

Also on BBC Breakfast, Benn said that the recent violent outbursts in Northern Ireland are not a true reflection of the country. “This is not what Northern Ireland is about, it is not the true Northern Ireland, it’s a place full of warm-hearted people,” he said.

“We’re talking about small number of thugs engaged in this behaviour and now the eyes of the world are on Northern Ireland and that is why this must stop.”

Benn also said on Sky News that ethnic minority people in the region were concerned whether they would be targeted next, adding: “We’ve had reports of people being stopped in their cars to be asked what their nationality is on their way to work, and this is completely unacceptable.”

Asked whether these were racist riots rather than protests, he said: “Well, if you are targeting people on the basis of the colour of their skin how else can you describe them? That is racist thuggery, there’s no question about it at all.”

The family of the Ogilvie, the stabbing victim, condemned the violent protests and appealed for an end to misinformation. Ogilvie is in hospital having lost his left eye in the attack.

Here is the agenda for the day.

09.30am: Parliament holding a general debate on the legacy of Jo Cox, almost a decade on from her murder

Morning: An adjournment to mark the ninth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire

Morning: Government responding to second night of unrest in Belfast, and seeing if and how it links to the unrest seen earlier this month in Southampton

5.30pm: Scottish first minister’s questions

Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch has apologised for the alleged Belfast knife attacker, Sudanese 30-year-old Hadi Alodid, being granted asylum under the 2023 government run by her party. She said she believes it was done under a fast-track scheme.

Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I cannot apologise for things that I did not know were even happening – we’re only discovering this now.

“I am sorry that these things happened under a Conservative government, but I need to talk about solutions.

“Apologies aren’t going to fix what is happening in our borders right now, and we spent far too much time trying to point fingers, rather than deal with the problem.”

Badenoch placed the blame of this decision around Alodid’s asylum status on Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman – who are now in Reform.

She said: “I was in the government, and the home secretary and the immigration minister who enacted this policy are in Reform. So as far as I am concerned, every party is culpable.

“I am saying that we’re sorry, we tried a lot of things, people took advantage of our kindness. They exploited our kindness.”

“The civil service clearly, and probably Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick as well, also believed that these people were genuine refugees.”

The Conservative party’s line is that leaving the European convention on human rights will solve the problems they believe are associated with illegal immigration.

Gavin Robinson MP, DUP leader, has said borders into the UK need “protecting” more. Speaking on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster, he also said that he believed that there was “less” violence last night than on Monday.

Of the violence, he said: “You cannot raise your concerns about damage to British values and then behave in such an unBritish way,

“Where your neighbours, where your colleagues, where your classmates are sitting intimidated and in fear, are having their homes attacked and their livelihoods destroyed.

“That is totally unacceptable and it is not British.”

Yesterday, he brought up the knife attack during prime minister’s questions. He later added in a statement: “I welcome the prime minister’s agreement to meet and discuss these issues further. That meeting must focus on protecting community cohesion, strengthening border security, restoring public confidence in the immigration and asylum system, and ensuring that the concerns of law-abiding citizens are listened to and acted upon.