Full speech (word for word) and video by The Home Secretary updated the House on the response to violent disorder this summer.
“Thank you Madame Deputy Speaker, before I start, I want to pass our sympathies to the families of Cher Maximen and Mussie Imnetu, who died sadly this weekend following violent incidents around Notting Hill Carnival.
And our thoughts are with their friends and families at this terrible time and our thanks go to the police who have moved swiftly to charge suspects in both cases.
There is no place for such appalling, senseless violence on our streets, and this government is determined to stamp out the scourge of serious violence wherever it is found.
With permission Madame Deputy Speaker, I will now make a statement on the violent disorder that occurred earlier this summer.
Just before the Parliamentary recess, I made a statement to this House on the horrendous attack that took place in Southport on 29 July.
Five weeks on, our hearts still ache for the three precious little girls who lost their lives, for their loved ones, and for the other children who were injured or endured unspeakable horror that day.
The House will know that a suspect has been charged and the investigation into the attack is ongoing.
Those grieving families, the Southport community and the country will need answers but for that reason, the legal process must now take its course.
That day in the House, all of us came together in sorrow and solidarity with the families and with the people of Southport.
And I spoke of the bravery, the compassion and the distress of the police, the paramedics and the firefighters that I had met that morning who were first on the scene.
So it is truly appalling that within hours of that statement, those same Southport police were facing the most disgraceful violent attacks from criminals and thugs.
Police officers pelted with bricks and bottles. The local mosque – a place of worship – subjected to violent attack.
And while millions of decent people across the country were praying for bereaved families, a criminal minority of thugs and extremists saw only an opportunity to hijack a town’s grief.
The Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy spoke at the funeral of Alice da Silva Aguiar, and she said she hoped that anyone taking part in the violent disorder was ‘hanging their head in shame at the pain’ that they had caused the bereaved family.
In the days that followed we saw further disgraceful violent disorder in a number of towns and cities.
Repeated attacks on the very police officers whose job it is to keep communities safe.
Over 100 officers injured.
In Sunderland, a citizens advice branch set alight…
In Liverpool, a library and vital community hub was torched…
In Hull, shops were looted and a mosque was targeted…
In Rotherham, a hotel used as asylum accommodation was set alight when people were inside…
In Bolton, clashes between rival groups involved fireworks and bottles thrown…
And we saw people targeted on the streets because of the colour of their skin.
This disgraceful disorder and racist hatred, including that whipped up by a hateful minority online, was an insult to those grieving over Southport.
So let us be very clear.
Those violent and criminal attacks were not protests. They were not about grievance. They were thuggery, racism and crime.
Plenty of people across the country have strong views about crime, about policing, about immigration, asylum, the NHS and more.
But they don’t pick up bricks and throw them at the police. They don’t loot shops or attack places of worship. And they don’t set buildings alight knowing that other human beings are inside.
There’s lots to debate on all kinds of policy issues – but no one should make excuses for violence or thuggery that risks public safety. This was brazen criminality, perpetrated in many cases by those with existing criminal convictions.
The Prime Minister and I made clear that criminals would pay the price for their violence and we meant it.
The Prime Minister announced a new National Violent Disorder Programme to bring together the best policing capabilities and enhance intelligence sharing across forces, and ministers worked daily with the police and criminal justice partners to ensure that there was a strong and determined response.
The National Police Co-ordination Centre operated a national mobilisation plan to ensure strategic reserves of public order officers were ready to be deployed in support of different police forces.
Over 40,000 officer shifts were worked by public order officers over ten days with over 6,600 public order officers deployed on one day alone. Rest days were cancelled, additional hours were worked.
The Crown Prosecution Service deployed over 100 additional prosecutors, boosting their 24-hour charging service, with additional advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions so they could move swiftly to charge.
The Ministry of Justice accelerated the work on new cells to bring 500 more prison places on stream earlier and the Lord Chancellor made clear that the courts stood ready to hear all the cases coming through.
And the Home Office established a new rapid procedure for security support for mosques to ensure that communities felt supported and felt safe.
In total, around 1280 people have been arrested, around 800 charges have been made and over 570 individuals had been brought before the courts for offences like violent disorder, assaults on emergency workers, arson, and for encouraging violent attacks online.
This robust and swift response from government and the criminal justice system provided a strong deterrent and showed our steadfast determination to keep people safe.
And most importantly order was restored.
But I want now to just update the House on some of the next steps we will take.
First we will take forward positive policing reform to build on the important work done by the National Police Coordination Centre this summer.
I want to particularly thank the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and public order lead for the mobilisation work that they did. But the reality is co-ordination infrastructure and systems that they had to work with were too weak.
And I am therefore asking His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to work quickly with the NPCC, the College of Policing and the National Lead for Public Order, to review the lessons from this summer’s events so that we can ensure strong coordination and intelligence systems are in place and that there is sufficient public order policing for the future.
Second, as well as ensuring there is proper punishment for those responsible for the disorder, we will be pressing forward at pace with this government’s mission to take back the safety of our streets and restore respect for the police and the rule of law.
We will put thousands more neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs back on streets, reversing the collapse in community policing and rebuilding the relationship between local communities and forces.
And this government is very clear – wherever and whenever violence and disorder emerges, whether in Hartlepool or Harehills, Sunderland or Stoke – we expect crimes to face consequences and perpetrators to face the full force of the law.
And the criminal violence we saw after the Southport attacks was not the only violent disorder this summer. We also saw disgraceful arson and attacks on the police in Harehills. In that case too, 32 people have been arrested, and in the last week three men have pled guilty for arson and violent disorder after a bus was set alight.
Third, I have been concerned for a long time that not enough is being done to counter extremism – including both Islamist extremism and far right extremism – as there has been no proper strategy in place since 2015. I have ordered a rapid review of extremism to ensure we have the strongest possible response to poisonous ideologies that corrode community cohesion and fray the fabric of our democracy.
And alongside that, the Deputy Prime Minister is overseeing cross-government work to consider how we can support our communities and address issues of cohesion in the longer term.
Fourth, the Secretary of State for Science Innovation and Technology will strengthen the requirements for social media companies to take responsibility for the poison proliferated on their platforms with the roll out of the measures in the Online Safety Act, and we will continue to be clear that criminal content online results in criminal sanctions offline.
And fifth, we stand ready to support the police through the Special Grant for Policing and the Home Office will work with Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that the Riot Compensation Act works effectively in the areas affected.
Madame Deputy Speaker, the country recoiled in horror at scenes of violence and disorder in some cities and towns earlier in this summer.
But let there be no doubt. The minority of criminals and thugs who sought to cause havoc do not represent Britain.
Instead across the country we saw decent people coming together to support each other, to clean up the damage, to rebuild communities.
The bricklayers who repaired the wall of the Southport Mosque.
The residents who donated funds and books to restock the Spellow Library
The volunteers in Sunderland who found a new site to offer community advice.
And there are so many more examples. And those small, unassuming acts of selflessness should serve as a message to the criminals and the extremists that they do not speak for Britain and they never will.
I commend this statement to the House.”
Sources: THX News, Home Office & The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP.
