Yvette Cooper has declared a “swift assessment of extremism” in response to the violent unrest that swept through towns and cities across the UK earlier this summer.
In introducing the review, the Home Secretary criticized the rioters, who took to the streets following the tragic stabbings of three young girls in Southport, for “exploiting sorrow”.
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She also committed to deploying “thousands more” community police and support officers as a part of five “next measures” aimed at enhancing community unity.
During a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, Ms. Cooper stated: “While millions of upstanding citizens nationwide were offering prayers for the grieving families, a criminal faction of thugs and extremists perceived only a chance to seize a town’s sorrow.”
Bebe King, aged six, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, aged nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged seven, lost their lives while participating in a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside locality on 29 July.
The chaos erupted after false rumors circulated online alleging that the assailant was an asylum seeker who had come to the UK via boat.
Yvette Cooper arrives at Downing Street.
Pic: PA
Ms. Cooper expressed that she has long been apprehensive that “insufficient” measures were being implemented to “combat extremism, encompassing both Islamist and far-right extremists.”
She asserted that a viable strategy had not been in place since 2015, stating: “I have mandated a swift review of extremism to ensure a robust response to toxic ideologies that undermine community solidarity and erode the foundations of our democracy.”
Additionally, Ms. Cooper proclaimed a review of police responses, commenting that the frameworks they were utilizing “were inadequate”.
The assessment will examine insights from the riots to ascertain that “effective coordination and intelligent systems are established, and that there is ample public order policing for the future,” she remarked.
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Included in her next steps was a commitment from technology secretary Peter Kyle to “enhance the obligations for social media firms to take accountability for the harmful content disseminated on their platforms, rolling out measures from the Online Safety Act”.
Ms. Cooper confronted her Conservative counterpart James Cleverly regarding these plans, after he insinuated that Labour was more concerned with certain types of violence than others.
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He remarked: “Does she now validate that the Labour leadership kneeling in the immediate aftermath of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) unrest, when violent demonstrators attacked law enforcement, indicates her party views certain types of violence as less serious than others?
“And does she acknowledge that any perception of treating similar crimes differently based on the race, religion, or community of the offenders exacerbates tension rather than alleviating it?”
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However, she accused the Conservative leadership candidate of “courting Tory party members” instead of providing a genuine response, remarking that he was “attempting to assign blame to the Prime Minister for events that transpired four years ago” as a factor contributing to “violent chaos on our streets this summer.
To date, over 500 individuals have been charged in connection with the riots, with many receiving long prison sentences after expedited court proceedings.
Earlier on Monday, the spouse of a Conservative councillor confessed to disseminating written content to incite racial animosity, while the sentencing of a 12-year-old boy was postponed due to his mother being on holiday in Ibiza.
