COUNTER-PROTESTS TURNED out across Britain this/yesterday evening, in response to nearly 100 planned anti-immigration protests.

Towns such as Middlesborough, Birmingham, and Sheffield saw strong attendance

In Walthamstow, London, hundreds filled the streets, chanting, “who’s streets? Our streets!” along with cries of “Free Palestine”.

The counter-protesters came as police prepared for up to 100 anti-immigration demonstrations, which have frequently turned over the past two weeks.

Police were on alert in 41 of the 43 policing areas in Britain.

A bird's-eye view of the huge anti-racist mobilisation happening in Walthamstow right now.

Via Novara Media’s @CharlottEngland. pic.twitter.com/iVtB15aopx

— Novara Media (@novaramedia) August 7, 2024

Early today, messages in far-right Telegram groups threated to target immigration solicitors and refugee services.

UK Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said that the publication of immigration law firms as potential targets for disorder could be considered a terrorism offence and that one case of alleged terrorism is “actively under consideration”.

The UK has been rocked by violent demonstrations in the last week, which broke out in response to the killing of three young girls in the town of Southport, by a man who was incorrectly identified as a Muslim.

Violence left the mainland UK on Saturday, when loyalist demonstrators in Belfast, joined by anti-immigrant group ‘Coolock Says No’ from Dublin, confronted police and counter-demonstrators outside Belfast City Hall.

Violence continued in Belfast for a number of days, with shops, restaurants, and cafés belonging to people from Middle Eastern backgrounds being targeted.

UK courts have remained open to the possibility that they may need to sit for 24 hours to deal with arrests at protests, and the processing times for those arrested has been shorter than usual.

One man arrested was sentenced to three years in prison just a week after his arest.

While the large protests seen in recent evenings did not materialise, UK police did say that a number of agitators were present, but that they were “not linked to protest, this appears to be pure anti-social behaviour”.

With reporting from the Press Association.