Keir Starmer must do one thing to stop UK towns and cities burning in riots
The riots must be stopped, and Keir Starmer should listen to what one of our former prime ministers has said if he wants to know how, says Tim Newark.
The ‘summer of discontent’ is exposing deep-seated divisions in the country and distrust of the Government’s ability – and willingness – to deal with uncontrolled migration. This has fuelled shameful, racist violence in our towns and cities in recent days. But while the police must come down hard on troublemakers, and restore order, simply dubbing rioting “far right thuggery”, as the Prime Minister has done, is to ignore real grievances that undermine social cohesion.
The perception of two-tier policing, pooh-poohed by police chiefs and politicians, is part of it. For months, police have used kid-gloves to handle pro-Palestinian marches through the centre of our towns and cities, seemingly doing very little to curtail anti-Semitic chanting and intimidation of British Jews.
But when people gathered to celebrate St George’s Day earlier this year, officers formed a cordon to prevent them marching through Westminster.
Waving the Palestinian flag, with all its implied support of Hamas terrorists and anti-Semitism, appears not to be as bad as waving Union flags or the cross of St George, which are now once more in danger of becoming synonymous with the far right, at least as far as left-leaning media and Labour politicians are concerned.
None of this excuses the frightening violence we have seen on our screens, but it does serve to explain the frustration and injustice that has been ruthlessly exploited by troublemakers on social media.
This double-standard was crystallised by recent footage of a policeman apparently kicking a man at Manchester airport. Before the full footage, showing a horrifying alleged attack on two policewoman, was revealed, much of the political class and media had already made up its mind that this was the latest incidence of police brutality.
In fact the situation was far more nuanced that social media clips had allowed for. But the perception that judgements by officialdom are being made on the basis of ethnicity and religion is not a sustainable route for social cohesion. It breeds resentment that can explode into violence.
Some of the recent violence has been stoked by minority groups, including pro-Palestinian protesters. On Monday evening, hundreds of masked individuals descended upon Birmingham and interrupted a live Sky News broadcast with the message “Free Palestine and F*** the media”. Later a pub was attacked.
Yet Jess Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley and current Safeguarding minister, came under fire from political opponents yesterday after she made a controversial post on social media appearing to justify their actions. “These people came to this location because it has been spread that racists were coming to attack them,” she tweeted.
As former PM Liz Truss responded: “Astonishing a Home Office Minister is excusing masked thugs. She must retract this statement and the Prime Minister must urgently commit to protect the safety and freedom of everyone in our country.”
It is misleading at best, and cynical at worst, to bracket right-leaning politicians and anyone who has concerns over migration with feral yobs causing mayhem across the UK. But by continuing to ignore root grievances, politicians are only exacerbating the situation.
Equally, while violence must be stopped, speaking of bringing in an “army” of police is inflammatory talk. In the past, Sir Keir Starmer has been all too keen to express sympathy for protestors when it came to causes he approves of: such as taking the knee for BLM, or rioters pulling down a statue in Bristol.
But when it comes to Britons complaining about an open-door immigration policy, then he starts talking about bringing down the full force of the law on them.
Senior police officers have not helped themselves either. That Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley, Britain’s most senior officer, avoided a question about two-tier policing by knocking a journalist’s microphone to the ground, only compounds the appearance of policing bias and feeds conspiracy theories.
The horrible, indiscriminate violence and vandalism that has erupted in our cities this summer is to be heartily condemned. For those innocents caught up in it, it has been truly terrifying. But Sir Keir should heed the words of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“People want controls,” he warned the Labour leader, following his election victory. “If you don’t have rules, you get prejudices.”
And this is the situation we find ourselves in now. Cheap political point scoring must be replaced by mature de-escalation and understanding. I just hope our current prime minister is up to the job. If he does not discover his inner-statesman then our streets will continue to burn and we will all be the poorer for it.
