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One in five Britons are now prepared to engage in violence if the political situation in the UK deteriorates further.
A survey of 2,00 adults in the UK showed that 70% of adults in the country are now worried that Britain is on the brink of political violence.
More than one fifth of respondents—21%—say that political violence can be justified, and a slightly smaller number—19%—said they would be willing to engage in political violence if need be.
The survey showed that supporters of Nigel Farage’s Reform party were the most likely to believe political violence could be justified, at 32%. Green Party voters followed, at 24%.
A plurality of Britons—47%—agree that protests outside migrant hotels are acceptable. Fourteen percent believe it’s acceptable to riot outside migrant hotels.
Protests have spread across the UK in recent weeks in response to the government’s policy of housing illegal migrants in hotels.
The protests began in the Essex town of Epping last month after an Ethiopian migrant sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl.
Demonstrations have now spread to London and to other major cities like Newcastle and Manchester.
In London, protests took place outside the upmarket Thistle City Barbican hotel, with hundreds gathering and police charging the crowd to make arrests.
In Manchester, around 600 protesters were met by around 400 counter-protesters in the city center. The anti-migrant protesters were joined by right-wing political figures including Paul Golding, leader of the Britain First party, which has called for a program of “remigration.”
In Newcastle, protesters rallied under banners that read “for our children, for our future” outside the New Bridge Hotel, which is currently being used to house migrants.
The protests have been met with determined opposition by leftists, who in many cases appear to have been directly aided by police.
In response to the ongoing protests, the UK government has created a new taskforce to monitor anti-migration sentiment online, as official fears grow of another summer of unrest like last year’s.
According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph, the UK Home Office has formed a group called National Internet Intelligence Investigations to “maximise social media intelligence” about anti-migration sentiment in the UK.
The group will work from the National Police Coordination Centre, which was used to monitor and enforce the social restrictions during the pandemic.
The government has vowed to come down hard on protesters if there is a repeat of last year’s unrest, which began with the murder of three schoolgirls in Southport by Axel Rudakubana, the son of a Rwandan migrant.
“While the public have a right to protest against the current situation, we will never tolerate unlawful or violent behaviour,” a government spokesman told The Independent.
“Working closely with the police, we have thorough and well-tested contingency plans in place to deal with any public disorder, which have been strengthened since last year’s shameful scenes.”
Footage of the current protests has been blocked on X for British users after the country’s controversial new “Online Safety Act” came into effect on Friday.
The Act, passed by the previous Conservative government, was intended to prevent children from being exposed to pornography and graphic content on the internet, but it already appears to be being used for a very different purpose.
Before the introduction of the Online Safety Act, X stated that it would use various methods, including “email-based estimation” to assess whether a user is likely to be an adult or not.
The Online Safety Act mandates fines of £18 million or up to 10% of a company’s turnover if a company violates the Act.
Elon Musk said the purpose of the Act is “suppression of the people.”
