A quarter of people believe rioters involved in last summer’s violent clashes were treated unfairly by the legal system, after 1,876 people were arrested.
Violent scenes spread across the UK in the wake of the Southport stabbings, which saw three young girls killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
Disinformation regarding the suspect and his immigration status caused widespread riots, which led to 1,110 people being charged with violent disorder offences.
A new YouGov poll of nearly 5,000 people found that 12 per cent believed the rioters had been treated “completely unfairly”, while 14 per cent said they had been treated “somewhat unfairly”.
Six in 10 of Labour voters believed they had been treated fairly, after the disturbances saw mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers targeted by large mobs.
In comparison, 70 per cent of supporters for Nigel Farage’s party Reform UK believed the legal system had been unfair to perpetrators, which saw some rioters receive nine-year prison sentences.
Dozens of suspected protesters are still wanted by police, with a national appeal launched to identify people for offences including throwing bricks and seriously assaulting people.
It comes after a series of protests in recent weeks outside a hotel in Epping, Essex, where migrants are housed, after an Ethiopian asylum-seeker was charged with allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
Additional protests have spread to Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Manchester and Norfolk, but so far, wider unrest has been avoided.
In London, demonstrations have taken place outside the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf and the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in Islington, which are also reportedly housing asylum seekers.
On Sunday, flares were set off and a group of people attempted to break into Britannia by breaching the fences and “harassing occupants and staff”.
Further protests have been planned for later this week, including eight demonstrations outside hotels on Friday evening as part of an ‘Abolish Asylum Day’.
Sir Keir Starmer’s government has indicated it is not willing to tolerate a repeat of 2024’s riots, with a government spokesperson stating that contingency plans had been “strengthened since last year’s shameful scenes”.
Tensions have been further heightened after Mr Farage and Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch claimed there had been a “cover-up” after police charged two men, who are Afghan asylum seekers, with the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl.
In a letter to the home secretary and Warwickshire Police’s chief constable, Mr Finch claimed that not publicising the pair’s immigration status “risks public disorder breaking out on the streets of Warwickshire”.
The issue of how much information is revealed by police regarding suspects has been the subject of fierce debate following a string of high-profile cases, including the Southport killings last year.
On Tuesday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said “we do think more transparency is needed” in the information given by police and that “guidance needs to change”.
Meanwhile, Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has warned that “the public’s patience with the asylum hotels and with the whole issue of illegal migration has snapped”, after small boat crossings topped 25,000 for the year so far, a record for this point in the year.
Detentions are set to begin by the end of the week as part of Sir Keir’s “one in, one out” deal to return Channel migrants to France.
The deal, which has now been approved by the European Commission, means the UK will be able to send people crossing the Channel in small boats back to France in exchange for asylum seekers with ties to Britain.
It also means that anyone arriving in a small boat can be detained immediately, and space has been set aside at immigration removal centres in the expectation that detentions will begin within days.
The prime minister said the ratification of the treaty will “send a clear message – if you come here illegally on a small boat you will face being sent back to France”.
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