Prison places ready for ‘thuggish’ rioters, says home secretary
The home secretary has said prison places “are ready” for the “thuggish minority of criminals” rioting across the UK, ahead of an emergency COBRA meeting today.
Yvette Cooper will hold the emergency meeting this morning following nearly a week of rioting in cities and towns across the UK.
More than 140 people have been arrested so far across the country. In Middlesbrough alone, officers arrested 43 people.
She told Sky News those involved, who have injured police, targeted mosques and caused criminal damage, are “a thuggish minority of criminals”.
She said:
They do not speak for our communities.
We’ve made sure there are additional prosecutors in place, that there are prisons, that prison places ready, and also that the courts stand ready as well.
We have made very clear to the police they have our full support in pursuing the full range of prosecutions and penalties, including the serious prison sentences, long term tagging, travel bans and more.
Key events
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said the courts are on “stand-by” to ensure “swift justice”.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
We have made sure that the courts are on stand-by. We’ve made sure that there are additional prosecutors in place this weekend, and hundreds of arrests have already taken place. So we do expect swift justice to take place.
Asked if the Army would be called upon, Cooper said:
So, the police have the expertise and also the powers in terms of dealing with public order and crime, because this is crime.
There are also significant additional numbers of public order-trained police, who were not deployed this weekend, so there are considerable additional policing resources that forces can call upon.
Pressed on whether the government will take action against Tommy Robinson, who has been accused of stoking tensions from afar, Cooper said:
If it’s a crime offline, it’s a crime online.
“You can’t just have the the armchair thuggery or the people being able to incite and organise violence and also not face consequences for this,” she added.
Claims that there is “two-tier policing” in Britain, where right-wing protests are dealt with more harshly than left-wing ones, are “not correct”, Dame Priti Patel has said.
The former home secretary told Times Radio:
There is a clear difference between effectively blocking streets or roads being closed, to burning down libraries, hotels, food banks and attacking places of worships.
What we have seen is thuggery, violence, racism.
She added:
Those kinds of comments are simply not relevant right now. That is not correct, it is not correct.
Politicians need to make sure they are “fully informed” before commenting on issues on social media, Dame Priti Patel has said, but she stopped short of directly criticising Nigel Farage for his comments about the Southport stabbings.
The former home secretary told Times Radio:
As we’ve seen, and as BJ Harrington, the Chief Constable of Essex, the national police lead for public order, has said very clearly, a lot of what we have seen is down to misinformation and social media.
It is irresponsible to just look at what we see on X or other social media platforms and then effectively say ‘Oh, it’s all down to, you know, comments like this that have been put out on social media, that’s got the full facts’ – it does not.
We have to, as elected politicians, always be careful, number one in the language that we use but ensure that we are as fully informed as we can possibly be before commenting on the situation.
Asked directly whether Farage was wrong to suggest the facts about Southport were being withheld from the public, Patel said his comments were “a matter for him”.
Parliament should be recalled to deal with the outbreak of rioting in the UK, Dame Priti Patel has said.
The former home secretary told Times Radio:
What we are seeing across the country right now is just extraordinary criminality.
At the end of the day, crime and criminality is the responsibility of those who are perpetrating this and we now need to, in my view, as politicians, get some kind of grip of this, which is why I am calling for the recall of Parliament right now so that we can actually discuss these issues in a similar way… back in 2011 those discussions took place and actually we put our arm around the communities that were affected at the time.
And I think that’s really what we should be doing right now.
James Cleverly, the former home secretary, similarly condemned the rioters, and said there “can never be any excuse” for their behaviour.
There is not and can never be any excuse, justification or rationale for behavior like this.
This should be condemned by everybody, and those taking part should expect to be met with the full weight of the law.
There is not and can never be any excuse, justification or rationale for behavior like this.
This should be condemned by everybody, and those taking part should expect to be met with the full weight of the law. https://t.co/rCMYb9JgZR
— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) August 4, 2024
Prison places ready for ‘thuggish’ rioters, says home secretary
The home secretary has said prison places “are ready” for the “thuggish minority of criminals” rioting across the UK, ahead of an emergency COBRA meeting today.
Yvette Cooper will hold the emergency meeting this morning following nearly a week of rioting in cities and towns across the UK.
More than 140 people have been arrested so far across the country. In Middlesbrough alone, officers arrested 43 people.
She told Sky News those involved, who have injured police, targeted mosques and caused criminal damage, are “a thuggish minority of criminals”.
She said:
They do not speak for our communities.
We’ve made sure there are additional prosecutors in place, that there are prisons, that prison places ready, and also that the courts stand ready as well.
We have made very clear to the police they have our full support in pursuing the full range of prosecutions and penalties, including the serious prison sentences, long term tagging, travel bans and more.
Last night, Rishi Sunak put his focus on the rioters rather than the Labour PM, as he described the “shocking scenes” that he said “have nothing to do with the tragedy in Southport”.
In a post on X, he said:
The shocking scenes we’re seeing on the streets of Britain have nothing to do with the tragedy in Southport.
This is violent, criminal behaviour that has no place in our society.
The police have our full support to deal with these criminals swiftly and they must face the full weight of the law.
The shocking scenes we’re seeing on the streets of Britain have nothing to do with the tragedy in Southport.
This is violent, criminal behaviour that has no place in our society.
The police have our full support to deal with these criminals swiftly and they must face the full…
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) August 4, 2024
Opening summary
Good morning. It has been a week since the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, which has seen a series of violent riots spread across the country.
Here is a quick summary of what happened last night, and what is expected later today:
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Downing Street is expected to hold a Cobra emergency response meeting on after rioters storming hotels housing asylum seekers. The meeting is due to involve relevant ministers and police representatives who will discuss the response in the coming days to ensure there is no repeat of the violent scenes.
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A large crowd gathered outside a mosque in Middlesbrough on Sunday night and others have also been targeted.
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In Rotherham, anti-immigration rioters smashed the windows of the Holiday Inn Express before starting fires. At least 10 officers were injured, including one who was knocked unconscious, South Yorkshire Police confirmed later, saying one person had already been arrested and others involved should “expect us to be at their doors very soon”.
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In Bolton, Muslim groups apparently shouting “Allahu Akbar” clashed with far-right rioters.