UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday vowed "swift criminal sanctions" following an emergency meeting on the far-right riots that broke out across England last week over the murder of three children.
The prime minister met with ministers and police chiefs, including Scotland Yard boss Mark Rowley, to discuss how to quell the violence that first broke out in Southport, northwest England, on Tuesday.
Starmer said that a "standing army" of specialist police would be set up to deal with rioting and that the justice system would be ramped up to deal with hundreds of arrests after violent disorder rocked cities across the nation over the past week.
"Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not a 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," the prime minister added.
Notably, hundreds of arrests have been made as police officers in riot gear responded to violent scenes in Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Bolton, and other parts of the UK on Sunday, after days of some of the worst rioting seen on the streets of the country in the wake of the fatal stabbings of three schoolgirls in Southport, north-west England.
Police have blamed the violence on people associated with the English Defence League, an anti-Islam organisation founded 15 years ago whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.
Hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques have been among the targets of the anti-immigrant mobs after initial false claims spread online regarding the stabbing suspect being an immigrant who arrived in the country illegally.
"I utterly condemn the far-right thuggery we have seen this weekend. Be in no doubt: those who have participated in this violence will face the full force of the law," said Starmer in a statement on Sunday.
"People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet, we've seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, (and) wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric. So, no, I won't shy away from calling this what it is: far-right thuggery," he said.
The prime minister on Sunday also warned rioters they would "regret" participating in the violent disorder, while his interior minister, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC on Monday that "there will be a reckoning."
Cooper also said that social media put a "rocket booster" under the violence, and Starmer stressed that "criminal law applies online as well as offline."
The violence is a major challenge for Starmer, who was elected only a month ago after leading Labour to a landslide win over the Conservatives.
MPs from all sides have urged Starmer to recall parliament from its summer holiday, including Conservative former interior minister Priti Patel and Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler.
Police have said more than 150 people were arrested over the weekend.
Rioters threw bricks, bottles, and flares at police, injuring several officers and looting and burning shops, while demonstrators shouted anti-Islamic slurs as they clashed with counter-protesters.
The violence is the worst England has seen since 2011, when widespread rioting followed the police killing of a mixed-race man in north London.
Clashes erupted in Southport a day after three young girls were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
False rumours initially circulated on social media, claiming the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker, but police identified the suspect as Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff, Wales.
However, that has not stopped mosques from being targeted.
CNN geolocated footage shows demonstrators attacking and burning two Holiday Inns in northern England on Sunday: one in Rotherham and one in Tamworth, which had previously been criticised by a local lawmaker for hosting asylum seekers.
Some of the worst scenes on Sunday broke out in Rotherham, northern England, where masked rioters smashed several windows at a hotel that has been used to house asylum seekers.
At least 12 officers were injured, including one who was knocked unconscious, as they battled around 500 protesters with "far-right and anti-immigration views", South Yorkshire Police's Lindsey Butterfield told media on Monday.
There were also large scuffles in Bolton, northwest England, and Middlesbrough, northeast England, where mobs smashed windows of houses and cars, leading to 43 arrests.
Protesters there seized a camera from an AFP crew and broke it. The journalists were not injured.
Late on Sunday, Staffordshire police said another hotel known to have sheltered asylum seekers was targeted near Birmingham.
Agitators have targeted at least two mosques, with the government now offering new emergency security to Islamic places of worship.
The rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner "Enough is enough."
Participants have waved English and British flags while chanting slogans like "Stop the boats"—a reference to irregular migrants crossing the Channel to Britain from France.
Meanwhile, 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.