Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage and the ‘Pure Cold Rage’ Used to Trigger a Racist Pogrom in Belfast

Mainstream politicians have stood by as the global far-right campaigns for anti-migrant violence on our streets. Now we’re suffering the consequences, argues Adam Bienkov

Vehicles set on fire in Belfast, as disorder flared in response to Monday night’s stabbing attack in the city. Photo: PA Images

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So this is what “pure cold rage” looks like.

On Tuesday, hundreds of masked men spread across Belfast, pulling migrants and non-white people onto the street and setting their homes on fire.

At one house, men were seen smashing the windows and doors of a house with an ethnic minority women looking down from upstairs.

According to the Guardian: “As [the masked men] stormed the property, some claimed to be “liberating” it. Graffiti nearby demanded “local homes for local people”. A woman in the crowd said to her friend: “There’s wee girls inside.””

They didn’t care. As the scenes spread, Belfast South MP Clare Hanna told the BBC exactly what she was seeing.

“What you’re seeing is a race-based pogrom,” she said.

“We are seeing men going door to door asking to get the foreigners out based exclusively on the colour of their skin. It’s not based on what they’re contributing to society, what their status here is and it’s terrifying for people in Belfast who want this sort of politics to be far beyond them.”

As shocking as these scenes are, we should not be surprised.

Over the past few years right wing politicians, activists and their media supporters have deliberately whipped up the hatred we are now seeing in Belfast.

Just last week, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for “pure cold rage” in response to the death of Henry Nowak, and pure cold rage is now exactly what he has got.

He’s not the only one. As racist thugs took to the streets in Belfast yesterday, following the stabbing of a man in the city, Stephen Yaxley Lennon (otherwise known as Tommy Robinson) was actively mobilising the anti-migrant “protests”, whilst meeting in a Moscow hotel with X owner Elon Musk’s father.

A man, who for years has been defended by some right-wing politicians and commentators as a “patriot” was openly meeting with the UK’s enemies, whilst encouraging anti-migrant rage on our streets.

He has been helped in this by X owner Elon Musk, who allowed Robinson back onto his platform and shared his own series of Tweets on Tuesday calling for “anger” against migrants in the UK.

Meanwhile, the silence and inaction from our own mainstream politicians has been deafening.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who just last month praised Musk as a “goodie”, has so far said absolutely nothing about the scenes in Belfast, opting instead to further promote her own calls to undermine equality protections in the UK.

To be fair to Keir Starmer, he has criticised Musk recently. Responding to events in Belfast, the Prime Minister also insisted that “it is clear that people were targeted last night because of their background and I will not tolerate it.”

Yet the truth is that he has tolerated exactly the forces that have led to what we are now seeing.

Rather than confront the rising tide of racism that has caused these attacks, and the platforms that enable it, Starmer has spent the past two years playing exactly into the kind of anti-migrant politics that has led us to this point.

And after spending this week calling for restrictions on social media use by children, the Prime Minister continues to do absolutely nothing to tackle the major and growing national security threat posed by X, it’s owner and the figures it is funding and promoting.

That inaction is now looking increasingly untenable.

What we saw in Belfast last night, we will see again on the British mainland soon, unless the Government, police and security services act urgently to prevent it.

The truth is that the global far right have spent the past few years using a billionaire-owned social media platform to deliberately whip up racist violence on Britain’s streets and now they are finally starting to succeed.

The biggest responsibility facing our leaders is to recognise that simple fact and then to act immediately to prevent it from getting any worse.

Failure to do so will leave them just as responsible for what happens next as the racist masked thugs dragging families onto the streets and burning down their homes.

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Adam Bienkov is the Political Editor of Byline Times and Online Editor of BylineTimes.com. Do you have a tip or story? Get in touch with him at adam@bylinetimes.com