The far-right riots have occurred when Keir Starmer has been in residence at 10 Downing Street for just a month. They are the worst riots since 2011. His response has been to impose law and order, something he was used to because he was Attorney General for England and Wales between 2008 and 2013. He was the one in charge of dealing legally with the 2011 riots, which began with the murder of a young black man at the hands of the police. implemented speedy trialswhich resulted in 1,300 prison sentences, including house arrest.
On this occasion, the first thing Starmer did was to describe
The Labour government used the formula of speedy trials to make the rioters realise that their actions had immediate consequences. Thirty people have already been imprisoned.
On August 5, five days after the start of the riots, he called the first crisis meeting (some criticise him for being late) with the participation of police chiefs and prosecutors, who he gave media attention to. For the moment, the situation seems to be under control. But the problem of these riots goes beyond that.
of four “thugs” or “hooligans” who took advantage of the situation.
These riots took place in a dozen British cities, in deprived areas. The underlying causes are the discontent of a part of the population due to the lack of future prospects and the impoverishment of their lives. All this combined with the massive arrival of illegal immigrants, which rose from 800 a year before the implementation of Brexit to 50,000 last year, since, with Brexit, The United Kingdom withdrew from the Dublin Convention which allowed him to send illegal immigrants to their European countries of departure, basically France.
Legal immigration has also increased. And there remains tremendous regional inequality between central and northern England (where most of the protests took place) and London and the south. This was one of the reasons for the vote for Johnson and Brexit in 2019. But nothing has changed. Equalising the socio-economic situation across the country requires a huge investment of money over decades, money that Starmer does not have right now.
The prime minister’s response to street violence has been forceful, but his plan to end illegal immigration, which is based on fighting people-trafficking mafias and involves collaboration with Europol and the European Union, is not so clear. Starmer won the July elections with a centrist programme with a large majority, but only 33% of the vote, but he is facing the left of his party and the right-wing populists of Anti-immigration Farage won 14% (although only 0.7% of the seats). Starmer has so far tackled the violence, but not the reasons that led people to protest. The big test for him will be first to draw the right conclusions from this crisis and then to change reality. And the results will not be seen on the ground for a few years.
