Will Starmer’s thug crackdown get results?

When Sir Keir Starmer arrived in Southport on Tuesday to pay his respects for the victims of the stabbing tragedy, he was heckled by locals. ‘How many more children are going to die in our streets, Prime Minister?’ called one distraught resident, as another cried: ‘Get the truth out!’ Just hours after the PM left, the roads were filled by far-right protesters after misinformation about the identity of the perpetrator spread on social media. Two days of rioting and over 100 arrests later, the Prime Minister today called an emergency press conference after urgently meeting with the country’s top police chiefs.

Starmer acknowledged that ‘fear is an understandable reaction’ to Monday’s ‘inexplicably vile’ attack – before warning the nation that the grieving families were owed justice and that the time for answering questions on the stabbing is ‘not now’. ‘I remind everyone that the price for a trial that is prejudice is ultimately paid by the victims and their families who are deprived of the justice that they deserve,’ Starmer said. It was a point he returned to frequently as he addressed the issue of the ‘tiny, mindless minority… [of] thugs’ that had descended on Southport on Tuesday night. ‘It’s not protest, it’s not legitimate. It’s crime, violent disorder, an assault on the rule of law and the execution of justice,’ the Prime Minister asserted: ‘As far as the far-right is concerned, this is coordinated, this is deliberate, this is not a protest, it is a group of individuals that are absolutely bent on violence.’

To tackle far-right demonstrations that descend into disorder, Starmer has announced a ‘national capability’ across the country’s police forces in a meeting with police bosses that the Prime Minister says was ‘not about pointing the finger of blame’ but instead to tackle ‘all violent disorder that flares up whatever the apparently causal motivation.’ The capability measures will work to ensure that intelligence and data is shared across police forces, and increase the use of facial recognition technology. Referencing how football hooliganism is tackled, Starmer pointed to the use of criminal behaviour orders and more ‘preventative action’. It’s less about expanding the force in the short term – although Labour has pledged a police officer recruitment drive – and more about better coordinating police units across the UK. ‘These thugs are mobile,’ Starmer said. ‘They move from community to community and we must have a policing response that can do the same.’

Slamming social media companies, Starmer warned owners that ‘violent disorder clearly whipped up online – that is also a crime. It’s happening on your premises. And the law must be upheld everywhere.’ But is quashing the rise of the far-right online – and misinformation more generally – really that simple? When pressed more on what the UK government planned to do with social media, Starmer was a little thin on detail. He refused to go into details about ‘conspiracy theory’ videos put out by Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage MP, instead insisting that ’the right balance’ had to be found with social media use.

His speech was not entirely devoid of party politics, however. The Prime Minister took aim at the ‘performative politics’ of the last Conservative government which he believes ‘blamed everyone else and pointed fingers’. Starmer’s approach, he said, ‘is to roll my sleeves up, get the relevant people around the table and fix the problems’. But even his own Labour colleague, Jonathan Brash MP for Hartlepool – where riots also broke out last night – has insisted that his local police force was overwhelmed and understaffed on Wednesday, while fears continue to rise among the British Muslim community about their safety and security. The Prime Minister was forceful on his anti-crime messaging today, but Starmer may still have his work cut out convincing concerned UK residents that police ‘coordination’ measures and social media ‘balance’ will be enough to counter future outbreaks of violence. It won’t be long before voters expect results.