Explainer: How has ‘two-tier policing’ myth in the UK become widespread?

Idea has been propagated by Tommy Robinson and others from far right but claim does not stand up to scrutiny

Police in Belfast came under petrol bomb attack in the Sandy Row area of the city as anti-illegal immigration elements went on the rampage.

Amid escalating far-right violence across England and over the past week, the instigators and apologists for the rioting have sought to spread a pernicious myth: the idea that white far-right “protesters” are the victims of a “two-tier policing” system that treats them more harshly because of their race and political views.

That is an idea propagated by Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, as well as Laurence Fox and various other social media demagogues in the past few days.