UK has 'lost respect for the police', says Home Secretary - as Archbishop of Canterbury also condemns rioters
12 August 2024, 06:14 | Updated: 12 August 2024, 08:12
Yvette Cooper has said that "disrespect for law and order" has grown in the UK in recent years, as she admitted many feel that "crime has no consequences".
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Speaking after a series of riots resulted in dozens of jail sentences, with many more still to face punishment, the Home Secretary said "rebuilding" must start with respect for police.
Ms Cooper said in an article for the Telegraph: "I am not prepared to tolerate the brazen abuse and contempt which a minority have felt able to show towards our men and women in uniform, or the disrespect for law and order that has been allowed to grow in recent years.
"As well as punishing those responsible for the last fortnight’s violent disorder, we must take action to restore respect for the police, and respect for the law. From anti-social behaviour through to serious violence, too often people feel as though crime has no consequences, as charge rates have been allowed to fall and court delays have grown. That has to change.
"There is lots of rebuilding to be done in our communities after the damage of the last fortnight. But respect for the police. Respect for the law. Respect for each other. That is where we must start."
The riots were sparked by the killing of three young girls - Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Aguiar - at a dance class in Southport on July 29.
False information spread in the aftermath claiming that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker. Since then, rioters have targeted mosques and migrant hotels.
Ms Cooper pointed out the difference between expressing firmly held views on political issues such as immigration, and rioting because of them.
Rachel Johnson: 'Immigration is being used as an excuse for the riots, and not the cause'
She wrote: "Lots of people across Britain have strong views on crime, immigration, the NHS and more.
"But they don’t pick up bricks and throw them at the police, they don’t loot shops or wreck cars, or attack people because of the colour of their skin, or set light to buildings knowing people are inside.
"We said criminals would pay the price, and we meant it. That is the rule of law in practice. It will be crucial over the coming days to maintain the work that quelled the threatened violence – the strong police response on the streets and the pace of arrests and prosecutions."
Labour MP Zubir Ahmed full interview
Meanwhile Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, labelled the far-right "unchristian" and condemned the use of Christian imagery in the riots as "an offence to our faith".
Writing in the Guardian, Mr Welby said: "Let me say clearly now to Christians that they should not be associated with any far-right group - because those groups are unchristian."
He added that Christian iconography had been "exploited" by the far-right and served as "an offence to our faith".
Speaking directly to Muslims and other faiths, Mr Welby said: "We denounce people misusing such imagery as fundamentally antichristian."
Mr Welby said the riots were "detonated by lies and fuelled by deliberate misinformation, spread quickly online by bad actors with malignant motivations."
He went on: "The lies and misinformation flourished in fertile ground cultivated by years of rhetoric from some of our press and politicians, arriving at a point where some felt emboldened to try to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers and target mosques."
Simon Kuper: "I think riots generally are an assertion of masculinity"
The archbishop also rejected the description of the riots as "protests" and said they were "criminal" and "must be controlled".
He also praised efforts by the public aimed at healing tensions, including an imam in Liverpool who offered food to a small group of protesters at a mosque and bricklayers in Southport who helped to rebuild a mosque that had been vandalised.
"We must develop and cherish these examples of civic virtue that have been counter-messages to those of the mob," he said.
