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Sir Keir Starmer has ordered a new “standing army” of specialist police officers to be set up to bring an end to the far-right riots which have broken out across the UK in the last week.
The prime minister made the move after chairing an emergency COBR (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) committee this morning with the deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, home secretary Yvette Cooper and senior police officers including Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
Ms Cooper pledged that the far right thugs face “a reckoning” with over 400 people arrested after far-right violence swept across the country over the weekend.
The specialist mobile force of police officers is a rare use of special emergency powers since they were first used 40 years ago with the controversial squads drafted under the Ridley Plan to tackle the miners’ strike in 1984 and 1985.
Over the weekend Sir Keir had signalled that he had lost patience with “the far-right thugs” who caused civil unrest around the country in towns and cities such as Southport, Liverpool, Hull, London, Halifax, Rotherham and Tamworth.
The violence broke out after misinformation on social media about the alleged attacker in the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift dance club in Southport. Far-right activists descended on the seaside resort and set fire to a police car while besieging a mosque.
Since then attacks havve spread around the country and included violent attacks on hotels holding asylum seekers in Rotherham and Tamworth on Sunday.
The new mobile police force will provide extra specialist support in tackling civil unrest for the 24 police forces around the country several of which have been unable to cope with the scale of the riots.
Announcing his new initiative this morning, the prime minister said: “There are a number of actions that came out of the meeting.
“The first is we will have a standing army of specialist public duty officers so that we will have enough officers to deal with this where we need them.
“The second is we will ramp up criminal justice. There have already been hundreds of arrests, some have appeared in court this morning.
“I have asked for early consideration of the earliest naming and identification of those involved in the process who will feel the full force of the law.”
Already the government had agreed to release £29 million funding for extra protection of mosques over the weekend with gangs targeting the muslim community.
The COBR meeting was attended by the prime minister, deputy prime minister Ms Rayner, home secretary Ms Cooper, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood, science and information technology secretary Peter Kyle, attorney general Lord Hermer, leaders from the police and prison service and other senior officials.
The meeting was told that there have been hundreds of arrests and people are already being charged. Police will continue to update on specifics in relation to progress on arrests and charging.
Police continuing to deploy additional resources around the country at strategic locations where necessary. The prime minister was assured that work is underway to tackle minisformation and bot activity on social media platforms.
Additional court protocol in place to ensure additional court capacity is available to deal with the cases of those arrested and the possibility courts may need to be open 24/7.
Tweeting after the meeting, Ms Cooper promised: “There will be a reckoning for criminals and thugs who took part in violence on streets, burning buildings, attacks on mosques, looting shops and the whipping up of racist violence online. They do not speak for Britain and they’ll pay the price for their crime.”
Her words echoed the prime minister’s on Sunday when he said he told the thugs he “guarantees they will regret” their involvement in the riots.
However the meeting was marred by the behaviour of Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley as he left the Cabinet Office and grabbed the microphone of a journalist asking him about “two tier” policing in regards to rightwing and leftwing protests before dropping it on the floor.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “The Commissioner had a positive and constructive meeting with the Prime Minister and partners across government and policing. He was in a hurry to return to New Scotland Yard to take action on the agreed next steps.”