Far right bursts Starmer’s bubble
Aside from the Labour Party's thumping victory, the outcome of the UK's July
election was a more fragmented politics that the country's first-post-the-post
voting system had for so long hindered.
As a result, strategists at No. 10 Downing Street have already been talking privately about how they should ready themselves to face a consolidated far-right foe at the next election.
It took only a month for that to become the most pressing challenge in Keir Starmer's intray.
After almost a week of rioting across England reached an ugly crescendo yesterday with attacks on two hotels serving as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, the prime minister called an emergency security meeting to try to get a grip on the disorder.
The man who ran and won on an ostentatiously boring "governance" platform will now be judged on his ability to do precisely that.
The timing couldn't be more awkward: Starmer's chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is in New York to sell the message to financiers that the UK is now "open for business." In that context, the outburst of what Starmer called "organized, violent thuggery" is not a helpful look.
Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions in 2011, the last time the UK experienced anything like this. That may be why he's rushed to respond with emergency court sittings, asking prosecutors to work round the clock to process cases, and pledging that offenders will regret their actions.
The question is whether, this time, a legalistic approach will be enough.
The Conservatives spent years trying by turns to ignore and outdo the populist right and their hostility to migrants, but it's clear their election defeat hasn't done enough to turn a page.
The outpouring of anti-immigration sentiment amid the racism again underlines how the Brexit referendum — far from neutering that tendency in British politics — instead elevated it to its most salient issue.
That's Starmer's problem now. Isobel Finkel
A chair is thrown at riot police in Rotherham yesterday. Photographer: Danny Lawson/PA.
As a result, strategists at No. 10 Downing Street have already been talking privately about how they should ready themselves to face a consolidated far-right foe at the next election.
It took only a month for that to become the most pressing challenge in Keir Starmer's intray.
After almost a week of rioting across England reached an ugly crescendo yesterday with attacks on two hotels serving as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, the prime minister called an emergency security meeting to try to get a grip on the disorder.
The man who ran and won on an ostentatiously boring "governance" platform will now be judged on his ability to do precisely that.
The timing couldn't be more awkward: Starmer's chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is in New York to sell the message to financiers that the UK is now "open for business." In that context, the outburst of what Starmer called "organized, violent thuggery" is not a helpful look.
Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions in 2011, the last time the UK experienced anything like this. That may be why he's rushed to respond with emergency court sittings, asking prosecutors to work round the clock to process cases, and pledging that offenders will regret their actions.
The question is whether, this time, a legalistic approach will be enough.
The Conservatives spent years trying by turns to ignore and outdo the populist right and their hostility to migrants, but it's clear their election defeat hasn't done enough to turn a page.
The outpouring of anti-immigration sentiment amid the racism again underlines how the Brexit referendum — far from neutering that tendency in British politics — instead elevated it to its most salient issue.
That's Starmer's problem now. Isobel Finkel
A chair is thrown at riot police in Rotherham yesterday. Photographer: Danny Lawson/PA.
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