The new Labor government of Prime Minister Starmer, after a brief honeymoon, is making all the wrong moves as Britain reels from street violence sparked by the triple murder of three young girls last week. It does not augur well for Britain nor for urban tension in multiple European countries where illegal immigrants and asylum seekers are testing the patience of a weary public.

The suspect in the July 29 attacks at Southport has been named as a Welsh-born 17-year-old, Axel Muganwa Rudakubana. His parents migrated to Britain from Rwanda. Mr. Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder.

The misperception that the teenager was seeking asylum, coupled with the heinous  nature of the knife attacks, triggered riots in a number of British towns in recent days. It underscores tensions in British society that are impossible to paper over. Yet Mr. Starmer is apparently seeking to do just that.

On Sunday he said that “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…attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery.”

He added that “To those who feel targeted because of the color of your skin or your faith: I know how frightening this must be” and “this violent mob does not represent this country.”

On Sunday, Britain’s Sky News reported that “mosques at risk of violent targeting” can now “be provided with additional security personnel as part of a rapid security response to boost the work being done by local police.”

There were reports of an attempted attack at a mosque at Southport, but no others. Scenes of police fending off rioters hurling stones and chairs at them at various parks and other locations around the country dominated British television news over the weekend. As of Monday police had made more than 420 arrests.

On Sunday a Holiday Inn Express at Rotherham was the scene of a sometimes violent standoff between police in riot gear and hundreds of protestors — who have now all seemingly been lumped into the category of “far right thugs.” Sky News described the Holiday Inn as an “asylum hotel.”

What exactly are asylum seekers doing at a Holiday Inn in South Yorkshire? Visitors to the hotel’s website will find the message that “the hotel remains closed for guest stays.” The same message appears on the website for another Holiday Inn Express, at Tamworth, which the Daily Mail reported “is believed to be housing migrants and asylum seekers” and where rioters were reported to have smashed windows.

It was not immediately clear if the messages were posted on account of the violence or if it is because Holiday Inn has a government concession to temporarily house asylum-seekers, which would then limit available inventory at the relevant properties. A call on Monday morning  to one of the Holiday Inn properties affected by the recent events was not immediately returned.

If Mr. Starmer  thought he could sweep the issue of immigration under the carpet, a growing number of politicians are reminding him of his miscalculation. The Reform lawmaker and former Tory deputy chair, Lee Anderson, wrote on X that “This problem has been caused by smug politicians who have refused to listen to the concerns of British people. It has festered and now it has boiled over. Parliament must listen, parliament must act but it must not blame the British people.”

In a video message, the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, said that the riots were “a reaction to fear, to discomfort, to unease that is out there shared by tens of millions of people.” 

Even after the dust of the riots settles, Britain will likely wrestle with the immigration question for a long time because there is no easy answer. Last year nearly 30,000 undocumented migrants crossed the English Channel in small boats — and now the number is likely higher. The total of illegal arrivals in 2024 is already nearly 20 percent higher than the number of arrivals recorded around this time last year.

The crisis is compounded by the fact that social services meant to process asylum claims are close to overwhelmed. There is nowhere to house the migrants except, apparently, hotels where there is literally no longer room at the inn for British citizens or tourists. 

This is happening while the national health service, the NHS, is broken.

Britons are now demonstrably fed up. While there can be little doubt that the people hurling rocks and furniture at police can be called thugs, this is just the most visible sign of a general, nationwide discontent long in the making.

The cover of this week’s Private Eye, a satirical magazine, features Mr. Starmer asking, “So we blame the Tories and then what?”