Politicians and social commentators from across the UK have taken to social media to condemn the racist riots that have swept Belfast – and the shameless far-right agitators who helped fan the flames.
As the Canary previously reported, rioters carried out a wave of pogroms in Belfast and nearby towns over the last two days, carrying out arson attacks on homes belonging to people of colour. The racists also attacked businesses they perceived as the property of ‘foreigners’, blocked roads, and set fire to vehicles.
The hate crimes followed a knife attack,reportedly perpetrated by a Sudanese man, on the evening of 8 June in North Belfast. Police charged the suspect, Hadi Alodid, with attempted murder. The victim suffered injuries to his neck, back and both eyes, losing use of the left eye.
In response, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) politicians, along with English race-baiters like Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe carried out varying degrees of the familiar song and dance: condemning the violence whilst also using dogwhistles and whipping up further racial hatred.
Belfast: shameless exploitation
However, Green leader Zack Polanski condemned the ministers stoking the riots for political gain:
Politicians who fanned these flames should hang their heads in shame.
Time and again we’ve seen this story play out. Single incidents used to fuel a far right narrative – and communities across the nation paying the price. https://t.co/kyDQWoE9EB
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 10, 2026
North Herefordshire Green MP Ellie Chowns also echoed similar sentiments:
Horrified by the attempts of bad-faith actors to use Monday’s brutal attack as justification to enact violence, disorder, and the targeting of immigrants and people of colour across Belfast.
Hatred has no place in the UK – nor should politicians who seek to incite it.
— Dr Ellie Chowns MP (@EllieChowns) June 10, 2026
The Lib Dems’ Ed Davey voiced his shock, whilst also pointing out the far-right’s shameless weaponisation of fear:
I am horrified by the disorder and racist violence in Belfast last night.
Far too often now, we see extremists exploiting people’s anger and grief to spread hatred and violence – with the help of divisive algorithms on social media.
This has to stop.
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) June 10, 2026
A ‘chilling display of racist violence’
Labour’s Nadia Whittome, meanwhile, didn’t mince words:
The attempted murder in Belfast was an appalling act of brutality by one individual. It has been universally condemned and the perpetrator has been arrested and charged.
Torching the homes of innocent people because they’re not white is a truly chilling display of racist…
— Nadia Whittome MP (@NadiaWhittomeMP) June 10, 2026
A “chilling display of racist violence by organised fascists” – if only half our MPs were so willing to call these riots what they are.
Your Party co-leader Jeremy Corbyn posted a statement on the “utterly sickening” violence on display. He also called out Nigel Farage’s dogwhistle for bringing us to this point:
When politicians demonise migrants and call for “pure, cold rage”, people listen.
My statement on the sickening far-right violence in Belfast. pic.twitter.com/KLAuXR7XN1
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) June 10, 2026
Likewise, the Alliance Party’s Sorcha Eastwood turned her rage against Farage’s counterparts in Northern Ireland:
A child being rushed from a burning building by a riot police officer into a police landrover as everything goes up in flames.
I hope those who fanned the flames are content with themselves. Because they knew this violence was coming. You can’t light the touch paper and expect… pic.twitter.com/kCOEQ5rnEH
— Sorcha Eastwood MP (@SorchaEastwood) June 10, 2026
Divided we fall
Meanwhile, outside the halls of Parliament, campaigning researcher Zoe Gardner set up a stark dichotomy:
Dress it up however you like – this racist violence has been deliberately whipped up by far right politicians & their cowardly wannabes in the supposed mainstream.
You are either fighting against the anti-migrant narrative or you are with these thugs. https://t.co/OOMmuvDU2W
— Zoe Gardner (@ZoeJardiniere) June 9, 2026
Turn Left Media editor Ben Mclaine pointed out the actual “two tier policing” at play:
Strange to think that the far right probably did more criminal damage in a single night than Palestine Solidarity movements have done in the past three years.
Two tier policing, indeed.
— Ben Mclaine (@BenMclaine) June 10, 2026
It seems that several commentators had it in for Farage’s talking points, at that. He threatened more riots, and now we’re seeing arson attacks on the streets of Belfast.
Journalist Owen Jones also pointed out the hypocrisy of the far-right’s reaction. However, his thread (and it is a thread) focused on the lack of riots following similar crimes by white extremists:
In 2024, a white neo-Nazi tried to behead a Kurdish barber.
Did Patrick Christys say:
“I preferred our country before white men started trying to behead people in the street”?
No. He said zilch.
Both the perpetrator and the victim had the wrong skin colour for condemnation https://t.co/ljKO6vwXxI pic.twitter.com/R1EFts9TFW
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) June 9, 2026
Last but not least, the Good Law Project hit several of the same notes we’ve seen so far:
An isolated tragedy in Belfast is being used as an excuse for racist thuggery, all in the name of patriotism.
Musk, Farage and their cronies are spreading hate, and trying to divide our communities.
But we won’t let them. We know the truth: there’s many, many more of us than… pic.twitter.com/Gw3pgJ3xGw
— Good Law Project (@GoodLawProject) June 10, 2026
The UK is currently speeding along head-first in its descent into fascism. The far-right is using any and every excuse they can to stir up white-supremacist violence and racial hatred.
We cannot fight this tide by offering watered-down versions of Reform’s talking points, packaged up as the ‘moderate alternative.’ Those of us who oppose these racist riots must stand with immigrants and people of colour in the UK.
Divided, none of us can hope to win out.
Featured image via Getty/Charles McQuillan
By The Canary
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