Since the summer of 2024, racist riots are becoming more regular occurrences. The groundwork for this has been laid, not only by Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage or racist social media influencers, but also by successive Labour and Conservative governments and the mainstream media who attack asylum seekers on a daily basis. Robinson et al merely ride on the racist hysteria whipped up by the British state and ruling class.
The most recent explosion took place in April 2026. Following a report on 11 April that a woman had been gang raped in Epsom, there were racist riots in the town on 15 and 20 April as rumours and misinformation spread on social media that the perpetrators were asylum seekers. Missiles were thrown at police in riot gear and a racist mob stormed a hotel in search of asylum seekers. A few days later, Surrey Police concluded that no sexual offence had occurred.
The riots are part of a witch hunt that smears asylum seekers as murderers and rapists; as a danger to women and children; as sinister and threatening. This is the modern form of a racist trope historically used to criminalise black communities. The logic for its use today is the need for the state to manage migration to meet the needs of capitalism. The British state has long attacked the internationally recognised right to seek asylum which it sees as a loophole in its racist immigration policies. From 2023 to 2029 Britain will have paid France over £1bn to fortify its border ports and stop migrants crossing the Channel. In an attempt to restrict arrivals and increase deportations, the hostile environment has reached fever pitch. Asylum seekers are purposefully kept in a state of poverty, destitution and legal limbo, denied access to basic services and forced into worsening conditions.
The government needs a vocal base of support in order to justify these attacks. The racists on the streets take their lead from the racists in power. In August 2024, Labour MP for Tamworth, Sarah Edwards, referring to a hotel used in Tamworth to warehouse asylum seekers, stated, ‘The simple reality is that residents want their hotel back.’ Following this comment, the hotel was firebombed during the 2024 riots. In October 2025 the Home Office reported that the number of hate crimes, including racial and religious, recorded by police in England and Wales, had risen for the first time in three years. Religious hate crimes against Muslims were up by 19%. Britain is a tinderbox. There must be serious mobilisations to fight all immigration controls and demand equal access to jobs, services and housing for asylum seekers. It is only such a movement against British state racism that will prove capable of defending all migrants and ethnic minorities against racist attacks.
Mark Moncada
