The enemies within: How the pandemic radicalised Britain
Editor’s note: For the first time, we are joining forces with our sister titles in Liverpool, Sheffield and Birmingham to publish a joint piece that tries to explain the violence we have seen in the past fortnight, perhaps the most widespread far-right disorder since the Second World War. It draws on the reporting we have done over the past few years, as well as our eyewitness accounts of some of the worst riots since the Southport stabbing.
In February 2023, a few days after an ugly riot outside the Suites Hotel in Knowsley left a police van torched to a burnt husk, a young mum of two called Connie stood on the porch of her friend's home near the hotel and explained her issue with the asylum seekers living in her town. “When we go on holiday, we don’t go away to molest their kids,” she said. “When they come here, they’re taking over our jobs, our houses, taking over our country. Now they’re trying to do stuff to our kids.”
Connie’s fears, and the fears of others in the town, stemmed from a video of an asylum seeker who had been placed in the Suites Hotel by the government, albeit briefly. In the video, he approaches a 15-year-old girl in nearby Kirkby and asks for her number. “You don’t do this in this country. You go to jail if you do this,” the girl replies. The video was widely shared online, the Knowsley rumour mill went into overdrive and before anyone had the chance to take stock, a large cloud of acrid smoke had risen above the streets of Kirkby and missiles were raining down on the police.
