False rumours on social media that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived on a small boat sparked a wave of anti-immigration violence across England and Northern Ireland.
In Southport, a mosque was attacked, while in Tamworth, rioters tried to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers.
Riot police hold back protesters on 30 July last year after disorder broke out following the stabbings in Southport the day before (Photo: Chris Furlong/Getty)To stave off future riots, Sir Keir Starmer’s Government is promising action on a range of fronts, from boosting investment in deprived communities to slashing net migration and ending the use of asylum hotels.
The work in Government to prevent fresh unrest is being led by the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner.
“Economic insecurity, the rapid pace of de-industrialisation, immigration and the impacts on local communities and public services, technological change and the amount of time people were spending online” as well as “declining trust in institutions” were all having a “profound impact on society”, she said.
Rayner and others argue that previous governments have neglected social cohesion.
The towns where Labour wants to improve lives
Rayner has launched a “Plan for Neighbourhoods”, for which £1.5bn will be invested across 75 towns to give people “real improvements they can see on their doorsteps and in their communities”. Downing Street has said that investing in the “most deprived areas” will “restore pride in people’s local areas and improve people’s lives”. A number of the places receiving funding – including Barnsley, Rotherham and Darlington – experienced disorder last year.
They are the first tranche from a wider group of 350, so far largely unnamed communities, which will receive millions to “fund interventions including community cohesion, regeneration and improving the public realm”, as outlined in June’s Spending Review
For example in Rotherham – where a Holiday Inn Express housing asylum seekers in the Manvers area was besieged by rioters – three voluntary groups have received £300,000 aimed at rebuilding community trust.
Ed Hodgson, associate director of the More in Common think-tank – which regularly carries out polling and focus groups on the theme of cohesion – said that “reinvigorating town centres” and “reinvesting in Britain’s social life” was a sensible place to start.
Rayner’s strategy is not just about more money for decayed high streets. The flipside is seeking to address some of the grievances about immigration which lay behind the unrest in 2024.
“A lot of the time, the social cohesion sector has sort of wanted to say there’s no problem there,” he said.
The Government has not been shying away from talking about the impact of immigration on social cohesion in recent days. As well as Rayner explicitly mentioning it in her Cabinet comments, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman backed up the message this week. Asked by The i Paper what the Government was doing to address cohesion, he pointed to the “extensive plans in the Immigration White Paper to address people’s concerns in relation to migration and to bring those numbers down as well”.
‘Government plan not ready for riots anniversary’
Earlier this month, two integration charities – British Future and the Belong Network – published a report warning of a “powder keg” of unresolved tensions and grievances that risked being reignited.
While the Government had been “beavering away” on its social cohesion strategy, progress had been slow and the plan was “not ready for this anniversary of the riots”, he said.
He said the other key elements to prevent more riots were “visible deterrence of disorder” and action online.
On the former, Government sources believe that the protests which have occurred so far this summer in places like Epping have been successfully contained and managed by local police forces.
Police officers block a man wearing a Union jack flag during a demonstration outside the Bell Hotel on 20 July in Epping (Photo: Carl Court/Getty)While the police have facilitated peaceful demonstrations by people opposed to the hotel and counter-protesters, Katwala said that measures such as outlawing the wearing of masks had proved effective in discouraging violence.
So far, the Home Office has also held the line by refusing to relocate migrants from hotels hit by demonstrations. The department has also indicated that it has no plans for curfews for hotel residents – a measure previously used when an asylum hotel in Knowsley was hit by riots in 2023.
More worryingly, Katwala said that the “online dynamics” fuelling anti-immigration radicalism was one of the areas where the “least has been done” in the last year.
While arrests and convictions of people promoting violence on social media had curtailed incitement during last year’s riots, “the level of impunity online has risen again”.
Social media platforms not dealing with ‘tinder-box’ of hatred
“The platforms have got no interest in doing it [tackling inflammatory content], no capacity in doing it, feel under no pressure, and so without regulatory intervention, you won’t deal with that tinder-box,” Katwala said.
But “there were a lot more people watching the Lionesses than were planning for civil war on Sunday night” he pointed out.
“It’s clear that central government has lacked strategic focus on social cohesion for many years, which is why this Government is working to develop a longer-term strategy to tackle divisions in our communities and build common ground.”
Full list of 75 towns receiving millions in grants
The 75 towns named as part of Rayner’s plan will receive up to £20m each to “fund interventions including community cohesion, regeneration and improving the public realm”. They are: Accrington, Arbroath, Ashton-under-Lyne, Barnsley, Barry, Bedworth, Bexhill-on-Sea, Bilston (Wolverhampton), Blyth (Northumberland), Boston, Burnley, Canvey Island, Carlton, Castleford, Chadderton, Chesterfield, Clacton-on-Sea, Clifton (Nottingham), Clydebank, Coatbridge, Coleraine, Cwmbrân, Darlaston, Darlington, Darwen, Derry/Londonderry, Dewsbury, Doncaster, Dudley, Dumfries, Eastbourne, Elgin, Eston, Farnworth, Great Yarmouth, Greenock, Grimsby, Harlow, Hartlepool, Hastings, Heywood, Irvine, Jarrow, Keighley, Kilmarnock, King’s Lynn, Kirkby, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Leigh, Mansfield, Merthyr Tydfil, Nelson, Newark-on-Trent, Newton-le-Willows, Kirkwall (Orkney Islands), Peterhead, Ramsgate, Rawtenstall, Rhyl, Rotherham, Royal Sutton Coldfield, Runcorn, Ryde, Scarborough, Scunthorpe, Skegness, Smethwick, Spalding, Spennymoor, Thetford, Torquay, Washington, Wisbech, Worksop and Wrexham.
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