Jeremy Clarkson rages at Starmer for 'p***ing off' Britons with 'far-right' branding amid riots: 'Calm down!'

Hundreds of arrests have been carried out as a result after mosques and hotels harbouring asylum seekers were targeted by mobs.

The Government has since announced greater protection for mosques with new emergency security that can be rapidly deployed to ensure police can apprehend offenders promptly.

This past weekend, violence ensued in towns and cities such as Hull, Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester, Blackpool and Belfast which resulted in several police officers being injured.

The Prime Minister has branded the scenes as "far-right thuggery" but several of those taking part in the demonstrations without turning to violence have taken issue with his labelling.

Clarkson hasn't been involved in the protests but in his latest column for The Sun, he hinted that he sympathised with friends and people around him who fear they'll be slapped with a "racist thug" tag if they air concerns over immigration amid the riots.

"Today, I’m surrounded by farmers and plasterers and brickies and butchers and all I hear, all day long, is that there’s too much immigration," Clarkson penned.

"But if they say this out loud, or if they go on a march, they are told by the London elite that they are far-right extremists or racist thugs. For the most part, they’re not.

"They are just people who know that they have to shut up when the Last Post is played and that a cheese rolling down a hill is funny. There was a time you’d have called them the salt of the earth."

Turning his attention to Starmer, Clarkson hit out: "But Sir Starmer doesn’t seem to have grasped this. He is surrounded by people who see nothing wrong with immigration and he’s got it into his head – as I did with Brexit – that anyone who disagrees with him must be some kind of Trump-nut."

After pointing out the vast number of people concerned by immigration and who voted for Reform UK and Brexit, Clarkson said Starmer was "p***ing off" millions of regular Britons by labelling them as "modern-day Hitlers".

"I therefore suggest that both he and his friends at the BBC calm down the rhetoric or we could be heading for some real trouble," he concluded.

Clarkson's comments on Friday came hours before Starmer issued a stark warning to those carrying out the violence during these demos.

He told the nation: “Be in no doubt, those that have participated in this violence will face the full force of the law. The police will be making arrests.

"Individuals will be held on remand, charges will follow and convictions will follow. I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves.

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"This is not a protest, it is organised, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online."

On Monday, Starmer also unveiled plans for a "standing army" to combat the riots.

Following an emergency Cobra meeting, he said: "There were a number of actions that came out of the meeting. The first is we will have a standing army of specialist officers, public duty officers, so we will have enough to deal with this where we need them.

"The second is we will ramp up criminal justice. There have already been hundreds of arrests. Some of them have appeared in court this morning.

"I've asked for the early consideration of the earliest naming and identification of those involved in the process, who will feel the full force of the law."