‘Show of unity’ from communities and police ‘defeated challenges we’ve seen’ from far-right riots, says Met chief – live | UK news

The Metropolitan police said officers have made 10 more arrests over the violent disorder outside Downing Street on Wednesday 31 July. This takes the total number arrested to 121, PA Media reports.

Met Commissioner Mark Rowley joined officers making arrests in Sutton, south London and said “Over the last week dozens of officers have continued to investigate the violent disorder which broke out in Whitehall last Wednesday. They scoured thousands of hours of footage from body worn video, CCTV, and social media to identify those responsible for fuelling and committing the thuggish and violent behaviour we saw.”

Rowley continued:

Their efforts have resulted in a series of crucial arrests last night and in the early hours of this morning.

What I want to make really clear is those we’ve arrested aren’t protesters, patriots or decent citizens. They’re thugs and criminals. Around 70% have previous convictions for weapon possession, violence, drugs and other serious offences. Some have football banning orders. These are violent people taking to the streets under the guise of protest to engage in disorder.

We’ve been really clear we won’t tolerate hate or intimidation. Ordinary Londoners have a right to live their lives without being in fear. Our message is clear – anyone thinking of causing disorder and disruption will be found and will be brought to justice.

I expect many if not all of those arrested over the past 24 hours will be charged, will go to court and will spend years in prison.”

Sadiq Khan has paid tribute to police officers and thanked those who demonstrated “peacefully” on Wednesday night to “show London stands united against racism”.

In a statement, the Mayor of London said: “I would like to pay tribute to the outstanding work of our police officers across London last night. And to those who came out peacefully to show London stands united against racism and Islamophobia last night – thank you.

“We have seen appalling violence and disorder in towns and cities across the country in recent days, but there was no repeat in our capital overnight. The Met has worked tirelessly to make it clear that such violence will not be tolerated and that anyone seeking to engage in disorder and sow division would face the full force of the law.

“I remain in close contact with the Met Commissioner and local people will continue to see an increased police presence across areas of London in the coming days as they seek to reassure and protect our communities.

“I’m clear that there is no place for violence, racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism in our city and we will never let those who seek to divide our communities win. London is proud of our diversity and of being an open and welcoming city, and always will be.”

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Labour’s policing minister Diana Johnson has said that people inciting violent disorder online will also face justice, saying “we will come for you just as much as we will come for you for what you do on the streets”.

She told viewers:

It’s not just those physical acts on the street that we’re going to make sure people are brought to account for, but it’s also what’s happening online.

And that’s really important. This week, we saw the first person being charged and convicted of what he’d done online, inciting violence, racial violence. And that is important.

If you do stuff online we will come for you just as much as we will come for you for what you do on the streets of our country if you are carrying out criminal disorder and violence.

She said that over 400 people have been arrested, and said “I’m hoping and I know that number will increase today,” adding “We’ve got over 140 people charged, that number will go up as well, and we will start to see again today, more people going into court and receiving sentences.”

Conservative leadership candidate Mel Stride has criticised Reform UK leader Nigel Farage over comments he made last week about the stabbing of children in Southport, describing the Clacton MP’s comments questioning whether “the truth is being withheld” as “deeply unhelpful” and accusing him of providing fuel for conspiracy theories.

Speaking on Sky News, Stride told viewers, after England and Northern Ireland had seen days of far-right anti-immigrant violence on the streets:

I think one element to this debate that has been skated over, and shouldn’t have been actually, [are] the remarks made by Nigel Farage.

For example, when they terrible incident in Southport first occurred, his suggestion that the police might have not been telling the truth about that situation, I think helped fuel conspiracy theories around what was happening [and] was deeply unhelpful.

I think linking what happened in Southport with the terrible incident that happened regarding a uniformed soldier in Kent over the last week is also a very unfortunate linkage. And particularly suggesting that perhaps terrorism might have been involved when the authorities are saying that it hasn’t.

And I think those things are examples of the kind of language and interventions that at a moment of crisis are deeply unhelpful. I think that’s why we need level heads and moderation, as well as very firm action.

In the video last week, which is still available on social media platform X, Farage said after news broke that a third girl had died as a result of the stabbing attack:

Well, it’s pretty horrendous a third young girl has died as a result of the stabbings yesterday in Southport. I obviously join everybody in my horror at what has happened. I know the prime minister went to lay flowers and was heckled, and it shows you how unhappy the public are with the state of law and order in our country.

I have to say there are one or two questions. Was this guy being monitored by the security services? Some reports say he was. Others less sure. The police say it’s a non-terror incident, just as they said the stabbing of an army Lt Col in uniform on the streets of Kent the other day was a non-terror incident.

I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that. I think it is a fair and legitimate question. What I do know is something is going horribly wrong in our once beautiful country.

Conservative leadership hopeful Mel Stride has been quite bullish this morning on the party’s electoral prospects in the future, claiming that with the right leader, the party could be back in power after just one term of Keir Starmer’s Labour government. He told Sky News viewers:

If we have the right leader, he unites the party and does the hard yards of the policy platform development that we will need to reach out to those people that we lost to Reform – and there are issues there around migration, net migration, lower taxation – but equally appreciate the fact that we’ve got to reach out to those Labour and Liberal Democrat voters who were previously Conservatives. We’ve got to do both those things.

If we can do that, and we can reform our party machine, so that it is a really powerful, dynamic local campaigning machine, and that needs a lot of reform, and we need to do well in the [local] elections in May as a consequence of that reform, then we can get back in one term.

This is a government that got in with the lowest share of the popular vote of any government in history. In fact, for those that were able to vote in this election, only one in five voted Labour. It is quite possible for us to turn this around in one cycle, and to win the next general election.

But we need the right leader to do that fundamental change that the party needs now.

Conservative Mel Stride has praised the police for “getting the balance right” in dealing with the “mindless thuggery” of the last few days, and said that he was “undoubtedly” encouraged by the lack of violence last night.

The leadership hopeful told Sky News viewers:

I think that is a tribute to the police. And I think they have done a very good job in getting in amongst the situation. Taking robust policing, getting that balance right, and also of course, getting the judiciary involved, getting people through the courts. We’ve already seen some sentences meted out already, as a clear deterrent to those that would otherwise get involved in this mindless thuggery that we’ve seen over the last few days.

Stride expressed broad support for how the government had handled the situation, saying:

This has been a really difficult moment for our country. A moment of fairly acute crisis. It is very important that opposition and everybody in public life does what they can to be moderate, and take robust action, certainly, but also be moderate in the way that we approach it. And I think that does extend to the view that one takes the actions of the government. The reality is that the police have done extraordinarily I think, good job in very, very difficult circumstances.