Greater Manchester protests: Angela Rayner blasts 'thuggery' and 'violence' on visit to Rotherham hotel

The Deputy Prime Minister and Ashton MP was speaking on a visit to the Holiday Inn Express at Manvers, near Rotherham, which was the subject of violent scenes on Sunday night.

Rayner’s engagement came as forces across the country were bracing themselves for more than 100 planned protests and potentially around 30 more counter protests on Wednesday night, with gatherings anticipated in 41 of the 43 police force areas in England and Wales.

It follows a list of locations being shared in chat groups and on social media as potential locations for rallies - including some in Greater Manchester. The speculation about a repeat of the scenes in Manchester and Bolton at the weekend led to businesses across the region shutting up shop early.

Rayner told reporters: “Coming on the streets throwing missiles at the police, attacking police, attacking hotels like this one here today is not a legitimate grievance. It’s not the way we do politics in this country and nobody should be condoning that.

“This is thuggery, this is violence, someone could’ve got seriously injured over the last couple of days and it’s no excuse for that, and people should stay away from it.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s number two also pleaded with people to try and steer clear of some of the online discourse and mis-information which has been blamed for causing the disorder seen across the country in recent days.

Rayner said: “I hope that the public and anyone who sees what is happening online, that they will know that online and offline criminality will be faced with the courts and with the law. I ask people to move away from that, to not get involved in that.

“We have seen what has happened on the streets, like here in Rotherham, that is not our British values. We all equally saw the British people come out and support the communities with the clean up operation, so hopefully people will see, detest what has happened and will stay away from this violence and thuggery that this small minority of people have engaged with.”

In Greater Manchester, GMP has moved to reassure the public they are “heavily resourced” should the online discourse become reality on Wednesday night. Andy Burnham has called for the city-region to “stand together”.