It was the day that England held its breath. Across the country, and over the Irish sea in Belfast, police feared and were braced for the most widespread night of violence in more than a decade.
Shops were boarded up, theatre performances cancelled and hotels and immigration advice centres closed over fears they were in the crosshairs of the far-right disorder that has laid siege to dozens of towns and cities over the past week.
But it was anti-racism demonstrators who thronged the streets of England from Newcastle down to London and across to Bristol. Counter-protesters arrived first and their numbers just grew and grew, from dozens to hundreds and then thousands.
By mid-evening they were mostly counter-protesters with nothing to counter. There was sometimes an almost carnival-like atmosphere – singing, dancing and in one case a samba band – with little sign of the far right.
The scale of the anti-racism protests was surely sending a message: an effort to change the narrative after a week dominated by rampant far-right, anti-immigrant violence.
In Birmingham’s jewellery quarter, outside a migrant centre, they chanted “fascist scum out of Brum”.
In Liverpool they held banners such as “Nans Against Nazis”, “Immigrants welcome. Racists not” and “When the poor blame the poor only the rich win”. An elderly man with a portable speaker resting on his walking frame played John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance on repeat.
In Brighton the anti-racism demonstrators so outnumbered the far right that the police surrounded the far right for their own protection. By 9pm a hardcore of three rightwing activists remained, so sound systems were set up. It became a party. “This could on for hours,” said one observer.
Father Peter Morgan, the priest of St Anne’s church in Liverpool, which hosts an immigration centre that featured on a far-right “hitlist” which circulated this week, said asylum seekers had been “terrified, absolutely terrified”.
His church had to be boarded up. Police on horseback roamed the nearby streets. Morgan described as “nonsense” calls for the country to “defend” its Christian values.
“It’s actually crazy what they’re saying and here we are having to defend our Christian church. It just doesn’t make sense. All we’re doing is actually helping to feed the hungry,” he said.
The huge anti-racism, pro-immigration gatherings were repeated everywhere. Nearly 1,000 people gathered in the west end of Newcastle.
By 9pm, as darkness fell, speeches had finished and many anti-racism protesters decided to drift home.
After what appeared to be a standoff, police moved into the crowd in Brighton to allow the glum-faced anti-immigration people to leave. It took 30 minutes and there were a good number of insults and jeers hurled in the process.
In Northampton police took to social media to politely ask anti-racist protesters to go home for the night. The Northants force said: “One hour since planned protest was due to start and there has been no disorder tonight.”
Some people expressed mock annoyance. “We made a sign for nothing!” said a Sheffield protester, Claire, holding a pink glittery placard emblazoned with the words “Hate never wins”. Her friend added: “They didn’t bother coming. Very disappointing.”
There were some skirmishes but they were few and far between. In Aldershot, Hampshire, tempers flared and police intervened to stop one group who were chanting “refugees are welcome here” from getting too close to a group shouting “stop the boats”.
The atmosphere in places like Preston and Blackpool was said to be tense.
Nine days on from the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport, Merseyside, police chiefs were preparing for what they thought could be more than 100 extreme rightwing demonstrations across England.
Every force in the country was on high alert by midday, with police intelligence suggesting that the north-west and north-east of England would see the worst of the trouble.
Riot squads of more than 4,000 officers fanned out around the country, shielding a “hitlist” of 39 locations – including immigration law firms and asylum-seeker accommodation – that had been circulating on far-right Telegram channels and beyond for days.
The message, believed to have originated in Liverpool, told followers: “THEY WON’T STOP COMING UNTIL YOU TELL THEM … NO MORE IMMIGRATION. MASK UP. SPREAD THIS AS FAR AND WIDE AS YOU CAN,” along with a dozen fire emojis.
While specialist investigators sought to trace the provenance of the post, the threat was taken very seriously. Keir Starmer called two emergency Cobra meetings in 48 hours and mobilised the biggest deployment of riot officers across mainland Britain since the 2011 riots.
It had been nine days since the murders of six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar at a summer holiday club, which left eight other young girls and two adults with serious knife wounds, and Britain had been allowed no time to process its grief before it was convulsed by a week of widespread rioting.
The violent unrest began in Southport, barely 36 hours after the fatal knife attack, when rioters attacked a mosque and set a police van on fire after the suspect was mistakenly identified online as a Muslim man of Arabic heritage. The posts were viewed tens of millions of times and amplified by popular rightwing figures like Andrew Tate and Tommy Robinson.
Other towns and cities followed: Hartlepool, Aldershot, London, Sunderland, Hull, Manchester, Leeds, Bolton, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Darlington. It seemed to go on and on.
Attempts by the police and judiciary to quell the unrest failed and rioters were emboldened. The seemingly random roll call of violence left the whole of Britain on edge.
In Rotherham and Tamworth, groups set fire to two hotels housing asylum seekers, while a community library was set ablaze in Walton, Liverpool. Shops have been looted, homes and cars attacked, and journalists targeted.
In Merseyside, the centre of some of the most serious disorder, the chief constable, Serena Kennedy, told a court on Wednesday that more than 90 of her officers had been injured in the “unprecedented” riots. Some were having sleepless nights and panic attacks.
By Wednesday afternoon, there were signs of communities preparing for the worst. GPs and nurseries were closing their doors by lunchtime. A hospital in central London told staff they could go home early. Businesses near the site of the planned disorder boarded up their windows.
Newcastle Theatre Royal cancelled Wednesday’s performance of the musical Come From Away while the Sunderland Empire did the same for The Wizard of Oz.
Carpenters and builders helped barricade an asylum advice centre in Liverpool that had appeared on the target list. Pubs nearby had boarded up their windows and Merseyside’s distinctive yellow police vans were dotted discreetly on sidestreets up to a mile away.
Ewan Roberts, the manager of the Asylum Link centre that was targeted, said he was “shocked and dismayed by the violent threats towards our staff, volunteers and service users and the potential damage to our neighbourhood”.
He added: “The response from the community has been overwhelming. We have had hundreds of offers of help and so many positive messages of support, it’s been really moving. We know this hatred is the minority and that most people in Liverpool are welcoming and kind.”
In Sheffield, parts of the city turned into a ghost town hours before a rumoured demonstration outside an immigration advice centre.
The owners of the Dog and Partridge pub showed their frustration on Facebook, telling punters: “We hate having to do this but we’ll be closed again tomorrow, folks. We’re not the only ones either. Office staff have been told to work from home too. These fucking terrorists are ruining everyone’s lives. It feels never-ending at the minute. Please stay safe.”
• Reporting team: Mark Brown; Josh Halliday; Jessica Murray; Ben Quinn; Robyn Vinter; Bibi van der Zee; Tom Wall
• This article was amended on 8 August 2024. An earlier version referred to “St Mary’s” church in Liverpool instead of St Anne’s.
