UK riots – live: Police brace for more violence amid list of 39 far-right targets

“Elon Musk is now an expert on London’s ugly riots (apparently). That’s right: the world’s richest man has been airing his views on the violence blighting Britain’s streets; the criminality perpetrated by right-wing thugs who appear to think patriotism involves lighting fires, abusing Muslims and caving in shopfronts before grabbing whatever they can get their hands on.”

He adds: “What worries me is that, while Musk claims to stand for free speech, he’s doing a fine job of creating material for its enemies – and using the power of his (sadly, as yet unrivalled, at least in terms of popularity) platform to do so.”

Four men have been charged following disorder in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre on Saturday, Greater Manchester Police said.

Andrew Phillips, 27, of Ripon Crescent, Stretford, and Shaun Holt, 42, of Oak Road, Stockport, have both been charged with violent disorder and assault.

Liam Ryan, 28, of Thirkleby Royd, Bradford, West Yorkshire, and David Green, 41, of Hamilton Street, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, have been charged with violent disorder.

They have all been remanded into custody to appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court later on Wednesday.

An assistant chief constable has urged people to ignore a list of locations, which has been shared on social media as possible targets for gatherings, saying police will be waiting.

Andy Mariner, of Essex Police, said there is “disinformation on social media” talking about activity in the county on Wednesday, adding: “Our message is clear – ignore it.”

“If you’re planning on coming here intent on disorder, we will be waiting for you, and you will be arrested,” he said.

“There is information going around on the internet highlighting specific locations around the country and some of those details of locations are just plain false, including here in Essex.”

Robert Jenrick has accused Jess Phillips of “appearing to explain away or justify intimidation against a female journalist” after the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley suggested that rumours of a far-right gathering had been deliberately spread in a bid to cause trouble.

Large groups of men, some sporting Palestinian flags, gathered outside a mosque in the Bordesley Green area after rumours circulated that the far right were planning on targeting it.

A man with a knife attacked a Sky News van as the TV crew attempted to leave the area after being told they were not welcome, reporter Becky Johnson said. Ms Johnson was interrupted by a protester on a motorbike who swore and made rude gestures at the camera while attempting to deliver a live report in Birmingham.

Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Jenrick said: “I thought it was quite wrong that Jess Phillips, the Home Office minister, literally responsible for safeguarding and for taking action against violence perpetrated against women and girls, appeared to explain away or justify intimidation against a female journalist and sectarian gangs on the streets of her own city in Birmingham.

“And neither the prime minister nor the home secretary has made any comment upon that. That’s wrong. I don’t think that’s leadership.”

“Show them that care and compassion is what Londoners are all about,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Whitehall Editor Kate Devlin reports:

Inquests into the deaths of Southport stabbing victims Bebe King, six, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, have been opened and adjourned at Bootle Town Hall.

Senior coroner Julie Goulding said it was “impossible to adequately articulate the devastating lifelong effects of the truly tragic events of Monday, 29 July”.

Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick called rioters “morons” and said debates about immigration and integration are “for another day”.

The former immigration minister told Sky News: “There is a separate debate to be had around integration and immigration in this country.

“But I think that is for another day, because we mustn’t allow the legitimate concerns of millions of people on those issues to be tarred by the brush of these criminals, these thugs, these yobs, these morons, frankly, who are out on the streets, causing harm, hurting people, smashing up shops.

“They’re very separate issues, and we shouldn’t see a link between the two.”

The Twitter storm surrounding Elon Musk after he appeared to fan the flames of discontent when he launched a tirade against Sir Keir Starmer has led to calls for reform.

Speaking to LBC News, Adam Leon Smith, Fellow of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, said: “There’s got to be a tipping point where a foreign billionaire platform owner needs to take some responsibility for running a toxic bot network that has become one of the main sources of fake news in the UK.”

There are so many more people who want to spread a message of welcome and solidarity to asylum seekers in the UK than spread hate, a charity boss has said, amid an “incredible response” to a campaign to counter violence seen across the country.

Conversation Over Borders, a national charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers, is calling for people to send in welcoming notes which will be delivered to asylum seekers staying at initial hotel accommodation, including those targeted in “far-right violence”.

Chief executive Colette Batten-Turner said since putting the call out the charity received 150 messages by the next day, adding: “We are getting more and more messages come in by the second.”

“People are really rallying around it,” she said. “It’s incredible to see it, I think it’s so important the voices we are hearing, most are the voices of far-right extremism, that it’s actually really not representative of most people in the UK.”

She added: “My message to anyone living in initial accommodation hotels and newly arrived to the UK or feel affected, is… there are so many more people who want to spread a message of welcome and solidarity and compassion, and who will welcome those people to the UK, and feel the UK is a better place because they’re here. We will make this a safe place for them to be, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the moment.”

Conversation Over Borders currently works with 800 refugees and asylum seekers across the country, including visiting people in hotel accommodation.

Ms Batten-Turner said: “People are very, very afraid, even in places not yet targeted by the far-right violence.”

Sharing positive messages to asylum seekers began as part of the charity’s digital inclusion project where a note from the donor would accompany technology such as a laptop to the newly arrived asylum seeker to create a “personal connection”.

“It’s really touched people and really helped,” Ms Batten-Turner said, as the initiative aims to counter a narrative of exclusion and racism, and think about how people who have just arrived are “just human beings like everyone else”.

The charity hopes to start sending out the handwritten notes at the end of the week.