U.K.'s PM promises 'standing army' of police to deal with rioters in wake of dance class stabbings

A "standing army" of specialist police will be set up to deal with rioting and the justice system will be ramped up to handle hundreds of arrests after violent disorder rocked cities acrossthe United Kingdom,Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday.

Starmer convened an urgent meeting after lawlessness blamed on far-right activists and misinformation on social media whipped up anger over astabbing rampage at a dance classlast monththat left three girls dead and many more wounded.

"Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest. It is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities," Starmer said. "The full force of the law will be visited on all those who are identified as having taken part in these activities."

False rumorsspread online that the suspect was a Muslim and an asylum seeker, which led to the attacks on immigrants and Muslims.Police have said the suspect was born in Britain and are not treating it as a terrorist incident. A 17-year-old boy wascharged and named in a U.K. court last Thursday, partly to counter misinformation about his identity that has been blamed for triggering the riots.

WATCH | U.K. rocked by violent protests:

Violent anti-immigration protests in U.K. partly fuelled by misinformation

2 months ago

Duration 2:04

Violent far-right anti-immigration protests spread across the U.K over the weekend, fuelled in part by online misinformation about the suspect in a deadly stabbing attack at a children's dance party.

On Sunday, angry mobs attacked two hotels used to house asylum seekers, breaking windows and lighting fires before police dispersed the crowds and residents were evacuated. Dozens of police officers have been hospitalized for injuries in the past six days after being struck with bricks, bottles and large wooden posts.

Oliver Coppard, the mayor of South Yorkshire, where one of the hotels was attacked, attributed the violence to "far-right thugs whoattacked some of the most vulnerable people in our communities."

"There can never be any excuse for trying to burn to death 200 of the most vulnerable people in our community,"Coppard told the BBC.

Social media misuse

Starmer's spokesperson said after the meeting that social media companies have not done enough to prevent the spread of misinformation that has fuelled far-right violence. Theyvowed that anyone who stokes the disorder online or on the streets could face prison.

Some of that false and misleading information has come from foreign states, according to the spokesperson.

"The disinformation that we've seen online attracts amplification from known bot activity, which, as I say, can be linked to state-backed activity," the spokesperson said in a read-out of the meeting.

The British government has called on Elon Musk to act responsibly after the tech billionaire used his social media platform X to unleash a barrage of posts that officials say risk inflaming the violent unrest gripping the country.

Starmer's office condemned Musk, owner of the social media platform X, for responding to a post of footage of the violence by saying: "civil war is inevitable."

"Use of language such as a 'civil war' is in no way acceptable,'' Justice Minister Heidi Alexander told Times Radio on Tuesday. "We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly.''

Alexander told the BBCthat the government will look at strengthening the existing Online Safety Act, which was approved last year and won't be fully implemented until 2025.

"We've been working with the social media companies, and some of the action that they've taken already with the automatic removal of some false information is to be welcomed,"Alexander said. "But there is undoubtedly more that the social media companies could and should be doing."

Stress on the justice system

More than 375 people have been arrested in the mayhem so far and more are expected, the National Police Chiefs' Council said.

Many made court appearances Monday and found themselves facing at least several weeks behind bars awaiting their next court hearing.

Starmer's plan to beef up the criminal justice system and deliver quick justice faces significant challenges as courts are already backed up and prisons are so overcrowded that plans were already in the works to release inmates early, said Cassia Rowland, a senior researcher at the Institute for Government think-tank.

"That's not a problem you can fix overnight and it's going to be difficult, I think, for the system to cope with the influx of demand that we're likely to see as a result of this disorder," Rowland said.

Starmer has dismissed calls to reconvene Parliament to deal with the crisis or send in the army. His office said police can handle the disorder.

Communities come together

Near Rotheram, wherea violent mob on Sunday stormed a Holiday Inn Expresswhere migrants were housed, a crowd of volunteers showed up Monday to help clean up the mess.

Police guarded the building as glass from broken windows was swept up. A wooden fence behind the building had been destroyed by men who tore off planks of wood and hurled them at police.

In Southport, where rioting first broke out July 30 the day after the stabbing there police said only one child remained in the hospital. The seven other children and two adults who were seriously injured had been discharged.

The Home Office, which is responsible for law and order, has offered mosques greater protection under a new "rapid response process" designed to quickly tackle the threat of further attacks on places of worship.

A vigil was held Monday to remember the three girls killed at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class.