Far-right protesters warned ‘We’re watching you’

Security staff are being hired at mosques in cities across the UK due to phoned-in threats about “targeted attacks”, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) reported.

There is “deep-seated anxiety” and “palpable fear” among communities, MCB secretary-general Zara Mohammed said, urging mosques to work closely with police.

Ms Mohammed said: “We go by what we’ve seen already and from what online posters are saying, but it sounds like far-right thugs and mobs are going to seek to intimidate congregations and mosques.

“In Southport they were pelting stones and glass bottles, shouting Islamophobic slurs and abuse.

“So it’s likely that we may again see groups of men and thugs coming together outside of the mosques to intimidate.”

Protests are understood to be planned for areas such as Liverpool, Glasgow, Lancaster, Blackburn, Newcastle, Birmingham, Sunderland, Dover, Middlesborough, Leeds and Hull, the MCB said.

Lord Walney, the UK Government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, said there was a “concerted and co-ordinated” attempt to spread disorder and police had the powers to “step in” and prevent violence.

“Clearly, some of those far-right actors have got a taste for this and are trying to provoke similar in towns and cities across the UK,” he told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland.

“Where there is these kinds of gatherings which are just designed to be fanning the flames of violence, (the police) should be stopping people gathering.

“People absolutely have the right to protest in this country, but they do not have the right to riot.”

Civil rights campaign Big Brother Watch has expressed concern about the use of facial recognition technology, which the group’s director Silkie Carlo described as “alarming” for democracy.

“Whilst common in Russia and China, live facial recognition is banned in Europe,” she said.

“This AI surveillance turns members of the public into walking ID cards, is dangerously inaccurate and has no explicit legal basis in the UK.”