Repair ‘social fabric' or risk repeat of summer riots, says No 10

Times

5 days ago

Sir Keir Starmer is demanding urgent action from cabinet ministers to avoid a repeat of last summer's rioting after warnings from Downing Street officials that Britain is 'fraying at the edges'.
The prime minister told the cabinet it was vital to repair Britain's 'social fabric' and improve integration in areas that have experienced high levels of migration.
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, said immigration was having a 'profound impact on society' and warned that to defuse community tensions the government needed to acknowledge 'real concerns' about rapid change, coupled with stagnant living standards.
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Alarm has been mounting at the top of government about a violent backlash as frustration over cost of living struggles combines with anger over immigration.
Liz Lloyd, Downing Street's executive director of policy and delivery, told a cabinet awayday in June that social cohesion was 'fraying at the edges' and public services were struggling under the strain of increased migration.
There are fears of more unrest this year after protests at an asylum hotel in Epping led to the largest outbreak of street violence in England since last summer's riots. Further demonstrations in Essex are planned and Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, warned that Britain was close to 'civil disobedience on a vast scale'.
Next week marks the anniversary of the Southport murders that prompted last summer's riots. Starmer told the cabinet it was 'vital' to improve trust and integration. He said efforts to improve school attendance were starting to improve community relations in deprived areas but more needed to be done.
Rayner told cabinet that 'economic insecurity, the rapid pace of deindustrialisation, immigration and the impacts on local communities and public services, technological change and the amount of time people were spending alone online', along with 'declining trust in institutions', were having a 'profound impact on society', No 10 said. Rayner said it 'was incumbent on the government to acknowledge the real concerns people have and to deliver improvements to people's lives in their communities'.
Sources familiar with Rayner's thinking said she was anxious to 'give people agency and pride in place' to 'reduce anger' in deprived neighbourhoods and avert the risk of further civil unrest.
On Thursday an estimated 1,000 people descended on Epping's Bell Hotel, where migrants have been housed since 2020, after Hadush Kebatu, 38, an asylum seeker and Bell resident, was charged with trying to kiss a schoolgirl on the high street. The demonstration became violent as protesters brawled with police and counterprotesters, leading to four arrests.
More demonstrations are expected this week and after separate protests outside a migrant hotel in Diss, Norfolk, there are fears that disorder may spiral. Tommy Robinson has suggested he may make an appearance in Epping and other far-right activists appear to be involved.
As The Times stood outside the Bell on Monday night, a car filled with young men drove by. One leant out of the window and shouted towards the hotel: 'We're going to kill you all.'
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Downing Street sources stressed that work on social cohesion was not in response to unrest in Essex and said the prime minister had been concerned since Southport about the unravelling of 'unwritten rules that hold a nation together'. Starmer fears that social media and school absence, as well as migration, are encouraging people to retreat into 'parallel lives' and was said to regard improving the economy and educational opportunities as crucial to restoring people's sense of fairness.
Rayner pointed out that 17 of the 18 areas worst affected by last summer's rioting were among the most deprived in the country, adding that 'while Britain was a successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith country, the government had to show it had a plan to address people's concerns'.
Her plan to 'restore pride' to deprived neighbourhoods and to deal with public anger explicitly warns that growing tensions risk further violent disorder. 'People feel like there are more tensions between immigrants and ethnic groups in society now than in recent years,' reads an outline of the plan published in June. 'Resilience in some of the most disadvantaged communities has been eroded over time, and at its most extreme has opened up the space for the type of disengagement and division that fuelled the violent disorder seen during summer 2024.'
In a presentation to ministers at Chequers, Lloyd said public services were struggling under the strain of increased migration. She said: 'Social cohesion is fraying at the edges, as services are unable to keep up with changes in time and migration.'
Lloyd said a 'more forceful' policy on law and order would be needed to restore waning trust in the government, as well as public service reform and a 'more active' approach to the economy.
In June, Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary and MP for Wigan, warned that the north of England could 'go up in flames', saying a 'real sense of anger' could prompt more civil unrest.
Farage has described the Epping protests as a 'a stark warning to this government that the British people will not put up with' high levels of illegal immigration. While he condemned 'far-right thugs' at the protests, he warned Westminster not to 'underestimate the simmering anger and disgust' at the arrival of large numbers of undocumented young men.
He added: 'I don't think anybody in London even understands just how close we are to civil disobedience on a vast scale in this country.'