Keir Starmer Announces "National Capability" Across Police Forces To Tackle "Mindless" Disorder
2 min read
Keir Starmer has announced a new “national capability” across police forces nationwide in response to "mindless" disorder in the wake of the Southport knife attack.
Starmer condemned the “tiny mindless minority in our society” after unrest in the Merseyside town, as well as Hartlepool and London after the incident on Monday in which three young girls died.
The Prime Minister said those behind the disorder were a "gang of thugs" and "far right", and that going forward they would be treated like "football hooligans".
Starmer said the rioters had "shown our country exactly who they are".
“Mosques targeted because they are mosques. Bricks thrown at the statue of Winston Churchill. A Nazi salute at the cenotaph."
The disorder in Southport saw bricks thrown at officers and a police van set on fire, and there have been over 100 arrests in London following the disorder in Westminster on Wednesday night.
"It's not protest. It's not legitimate. It's crime," the Prime Minister said in Downing Street.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood were also at the press conference.
Speaking after he met police chiefs earlier in the day, Starmer said “these thugs are mobile, they move from community to community” and that "we must have a policing response that can do the same".
Listing ways in which the police would step up their response, the PM said, “shared intelligence, wider deployment of facial recognition technology and preventative action, criminal behavior orders to restrict their movements before they can even board a train".
There was also a warning to social media companies, as the Prime MInister said that “violent disorder clearly whipped up online” is also a crime.
“It's happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere,” he said.
Three girls, aged six, seven and nine died in the attack at a dance class in Southport on Monday morning. Eight other children were injured, along with two adults.
Starmer called the attack “inexplicitly vile” and said that the pain of the families affected is “unimaginable”.
He called on people to “give them and indeed, the wider community at Southport the space to grieve and time for the authorities in Merseyside to do their job.”
17-year-old Axel Rudakubana appeared in court on Thursday charged with the murder of three girls, and 10 counts of attempted murder following the incident at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Monday.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
