"We should be worried" that the UK will be rocked with more riots, politics professor Dr David Jeffery has claimed.
Riots across a number of towns and cities have erupted following the murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed event in Southport, a seaside town in northwest England, after false messaging on social media wrongly identified the suspected killer as an Islamist migrant.
Unrest has spread, with rioters targeting mosques and smashing windows of hotels housing asylum-seekers from Africa and the Middle East, chanting "get them out."
Messages online said immigration centres and law firms aiding migrants would be targeted on today, prompting counter-protesters to also vow to demonstrate.
Dr David Jeffery said that we "should be worried"
GB News
Speaking to GB News, Jeffery said: "To some, this might feel like the calm before the storm. There have been lots of threats that today is going to be a big day of protesting or rioting, and that's something that should worry everybody.
"Some of the signs that we've seen now from the system, so from the government, from the state and from the police are quite promising.
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"If we think of the Government as an oil tanker, it takes a long time to get into position. But once it does, it can it can make some good progress. And we've seen that with the arrests you just mentioned and the very fast set of processing in court, which people might be asking why is it we can suddenly do this now?
"In normal times the courts are all backed up and things like that. Starmer will probably be in a stronger position by the end of the week than he was at the start, because things are starting to move in his favour."
He later added: "I think obviously Starmer's had to do something. The 6,000 police officers as a kind of standing army is is useful, but there are questions of logistics. And will they be in the right place at the right time?
"These take a long time to set up. If we do have the 30 riots that have been mooted across social media and across the news, that is very worrying.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned the ongoing riots classifying them as "far-right thuggery"PA"As someone who's from Liverpool has seen the riots happen in this city. I don't want to see my city burn, I don't want to see my city destroyed.
"I just hope that everybody who's considering going to one of these protests, even if they intend to be completely peaceful, stays at home.
"Because the more people there are, the more oxygen it provides for the people who do want to cause trouble, and that makes them think that they're on the right side here."
Riots have been happening all over the country
GettySpeaking after an emergency meeting with ministers and police chiefs on Tuesday, Starmer said police would be in place to cope with any further disorder.
"Our first duty is to ensure our communities are safe," he told broadcasters.
"They will be safe. We are doing everything we can to ensure that where a police response is needed, it is in place, where support is needed for particular places, that is in place."
He said the fact that protests were being held in multiple locations made it difficult, but he had received the assurance he needed that police could cope with any disorder.