LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday Britain would not tolerate people feeling intimidated “because of their background or the color of their skin” after a large far-right protest was marked by battles with police.
In his first comments on Saturday’s rally organized by far-right activist Tommy Robinson and attended by up to 150,000 people, according to police, Starmer also condemned attacks on police on officers.
The clashes left 26 officers injured, four seriously, and led to 24 arrests. London police have pledged to make more arrests in coming days.
“People have a right to peaceful protest. It is core to our country’s values,” Starmer said on X, the day after the protesters massed near his Downing Street office amid a sea of English and British flags.
“But we will not stand for assaults on police officers doing their job or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the color of their skin.”
The leader of the center-left Labour government, who was the target of persistent criticism at the rally, added “Britain is a nation proudly built on tolerance, diversity and respect.”
“Our flag represents our diverse country and we will never surrender it to those that use it as a symbol of violence, fear and division,” Starmer said.
London’s Metropolitan Police said it had so far arrested 24 people after officers faced “unacceptable violence” trying to control up to 150,000 people at the event.
That was two fewer arrests than the force last reported, after discovering what it called “two duplicate records.”
Twenty-six police were injured, four seriously, in clashes on the fringes of Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” rally.
Of those arrested, three were women and 21 were men, with the oldest person arrested aged 58 and the youngest 19 years-old, according to police.
It said alleged offenses included common assault, criminal damage, assault on an emergency worker, and possession of an offensive weapon, noting a number of people were arrested on suspicion of more than one offense.
“A post-event investigation is under way, with officers working to identify other people involved in disorder with a view to making further arrests in the coming days and weeks,” the force added.
The attacks on police occurred after some activists tried to enter sealed off areas near counter-protesters at a Stand Up to Racism march which had ended close by, according to the Met.
Officers were “assaulted with kicks and punches” while “bottles, flares and other projectiles were thrown,” it said.
Protesters at Robinson’s event had marched over Westminster Bridge before rallying near Downing Street for speeches by figures associated with the far right from across Europe and North America, including billionaire tycoon Elon Musk.
In an address by video, the X owner called for the dissolution of Britain’s parliament and the replacement of the center-left Labour government while claiming “violence is coming to you.”
“You either fight back or you die,” he told the crowds.
Assessing the speeches and attendees, anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate called the event Britain’s largest ever far-right protest.
“Seeing such a big crowd cheering speeches that called for banning all public expression of non-Christian religions, demanded the ‘remigration’ of legal migrants... and claimed Britain is being ‘invaded’ and its population ‘replaced’ is unprecedented,” it said.
“For anyone worried about the rise of far-right activism and the normalization of viciously anti-migrant, anti-Muslim sentiment, it could be a sign of dark times to come.”
Starmer: UK won’t tolerate racial intimidation after far-right rally
https://arab.news/4nefz
Starmer: UK won’t tolerate racial intimidation after far-right rally
- Police were attacked during a far-right rally in London attended by up to 150,000 people
- British PM says people have right to peaceful protest but won't stand for intimidating people because of skin color
Trump says Zelensky ‘isn’t ready’ yet to accept US-authored proposal to end Russia-Ukraine war
- Trump said he was “disappointed” and suggested that the Ukrainian leader is holding up the talks from moving forward
- He also claimed Russia is “fine with it” even though Putin last week had said that aspects of Trump’s proposal were unworkable
KYIV, Ukraine: President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “isn’t ready” to sign off on a US-authored peace proposal aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump was critical of Zelensky after US and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the US administration’s proposal. But in an exchange with reporters on Sunday night, Trump suggested that the Ukrainian leader is holding up the talks from moving forward.
“I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn’t,” Trump claimed in an exchange with reporters before taking part in the Kennedy Center Honors. The president added, “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it. His people love it it. But he isn’t ready.”
To be certain, Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t publicly expressed approval for the White House plan. In fact, Putin last week had said that aspects of Trump’s proposal were unworkable, even though the original draft heavily favored Moscow.
Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Zelensky since riding into a second White House term insisting that the war was a waste of US taxpayer money. Trump has also repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to bring an end to a now nearly four-year conflict he says has cost far too many lives.
Zelensky said Saturday he had a “substantive phone call” with the American officials engaged in the talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by US and Ukrainian officials at the talks.
“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
Trump’s criticism of Zelensky came as Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy in comments by the Kremlin spokesman published by Russia’s Tass news agency.
Dmitry Peskov said the updated strategic document, which spells out the administration’s core foreign policy interests, was largely in line with Moscow’s vision.
“There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations,” he said, adding that Russia hopes this would lead to “further constructive cooperation with Washington on the Ukrainian settlement.”
The document released Friday by the White House said the US wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core US interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”
Speaking on Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 meters.”
He said a deal depended on the two outstanding issues of “terrain, primarily the Donbas,” and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Russia controls most of Donbas, its name for the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, which, along with two southern regions, it illegally annexed three years ago. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service. It needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Kellogg, who is due to leave his post in January, was not present at the talks in Florida.
Separately, officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelensky in London on Monday.
As the three days of talks wrapped up, Russian missile, drone and shelling attacks overnight and Sunday killed at least four people in Ukraine.
A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
Three people were killed and 10 others wounded Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
