UK Anti-Immigration Riots, Explained
Published: October 9, 2025
In this report, we analyse the Southport knife attack, the following anti-immigration riots, UK immigration policy of the past decade, small boat arrivals, use of hotels to house asylum seekers and recent policy changes.
The 2024 anti-immigration riots lasted 6 days. This was the largest episode of violent protests in the UK since 2011.
At the time, 70% of the British public said they were dissatisfied with the government’s immigration policy.
On 29 July 2024, a 17-year-old British teen, son of Christian Rwandan immigrants, attacked a children’s dance class, killing 3 girls (aged 6-10) with a kitchen knife.
He injured 8 more children and 2 adults, most of them critically.
The attacker, Axel Rudukubana, was referred to counter-terrorism police for violent behaviour 3 times, but had no connections to Islam.
Incorrect claims spread online that the attacker was an illegal immigrant, an asylum seeker, and that his name was “Ali Al-Shakhati”.
This connected the incident with the public opposition to immigration.
The next day, protesters gathered outside the Southport mosque, attacking the building and police officers who defended it.
A police van was set on fire, 27 officers were hospitalised.
Over the next 6 days, violent protests took place in many cities and towns across the UK.
361 police officers were injured.
1,840 people were eventually arrested and 1,103 were charged with crimes, most commonly — violent disorder.
The average prison sentence given was 2 years.
In most cases, those sentenced either attacked police officers or were calling for violence against asylum seekers or others.
Some cases have been discussed as controversial:
Lucy Connolly, wife of a Conservative politician, posted on X saying: “set fire to the … hotels full of the [asylum seekers]. … take the … government and … politicians with them”. She was sentenced to 31 months in prison and released after 12 months.
Peter Lynch, 61, was sentenced for 32 months for verbal abuse of police officers. He committed suicide in prison 2 months into the term.
However, anger was also directed at the less harsh sentences given to illegal immigrants committing sexual offences or other crimes.
For example, an Ethiopian asylum seeker living in a hotel in Epping was given a 12-month sentence for touching and trying to kiss a 14-year-old girl, a week after arriving on a small boat from France.
Small boat arrivals and the rise in illegal migration started around 2014, driven by global instability.
You can find out more about the causes and consequences of the European migrant crisis in our separate report.
The number of small boat arrivals in the UK increased by 15 times during the Covid-19 pandemic, to over 30,000 people per year.
Today, small boat arrivals account for 86% of all illegal immigration to the UK.
Illegal migrants make up 6% of all immigrants entering the UK.
94% of migrants arrive legally: mostly on student and work visas.
Multiple Conservative Party governments ruling the UK in 2010-2024 have failed to control immigration and deliver on their promises.
One claimed goal was to reduce immigration to “tens of thousands”. The real number today remains closer to 1 million arrivals per year.
At the same time, the levels of illegal immigration increased too.
Jobs in the gig economy (such as food delivery or ride-hailing) allowed illegal immigrants to work in the UK.
It is hard to accurately compare crime levels between immigrants and locals.
A popular figure that Afghans and Eritreans are 20 times more likely to commit sexual offences than Britons is inaccurate because it uses population shares before the immigration spike.
The Sun reported that 339 asylum seekers living in hotels were charged with crimes in the first half of 2025.
This is 1% of around 32,000 such asylum seekers.
In the first half of 2024, around 650,000 people were charged with crimes in the UK, out of 69 million total population. This suggests an almost identical rate of 1%.
However, the Sun’s analysis only accounted for half of the hotels used, suggesting the rate may actually be around 2%.
The use of hotels to house asylum seekers increased around 2021 as the flow of migrants increased and few alternatives were available.
At its peak in 2023, the program included 400 hotels across the UK, costing the government (and the taxpayers) £9 million per year.
It costs £170 per day to house an asylum seeker in a hotel, on average.
This is particularly controversial as housing is expensive and scarce in the UK, and many wait for years to receive state support with accommodation.
Today, 74% of all areas in the UK host some asylum seekers, compared to 37% in 2019.
Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and the Midlands regions saw the sharpest change since 2021.
1 in every 800 people in Britain is an illegal migrant, around 0.2% of the population.
Policy response
The current Labour government has attempted to fix some of the problems with the UK immigration system.
There is a 15-25% increase in deportations since July 2024.
The government allocated £200 million to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers by 2029.
It also agreed a controversial “one in, one out” policy with France, accepting one migrant with a strong case for asylum in the UK for each illegal migrant deported.
The Labour government introduced a set of measures to reduce legal migration too, such as stricter rules for receiving residency permits.
However, the overall number of small boat crossings did not decrease so far under the Labour government.
The most commonly proposed solution is increased enforcement(meaning greater effort to make sure the law is followed, such as by physically preventing the small boats from arriving).
This would require allocating more resources to the Border Force for this purpose, and the use of force against illegal immigrants upon arrival.
In the US, the level of illegal immigration fell from record-high to near zero between 2024 and 2025.
Thank you for reading!
Author Benedict Mander
Editor Anton Kutuzov
Some sources and Further Reading
Small Boat Arrivals (Oxford University, Migration Observatory)
Asylum Seekers’ Accommodation (Oxford University, Migration Observatory)
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