Can a rookie PM stop the riots without adding fuel to the fires?

In his first speech outside 10 Downing Street after claiming victory in the UK general election, Keir Starmer promised he would be a prime minister for “stability and moderation”. One month on, he now faces his first serious test of domestic stability.

Summer here in the UK has quickly turned into a season of unrest. It began last week in the northern seaside town of Southport, following a knife attack on a children’s dance party that resulted in the deaths of three young girls. Far-right extremists responded by whipping up hatred and hysteria online about immigrants. Rioting broke out in Southport, with violence also erupting in Sunderland, Hartlepool and London.

What Nigel Farage (left) lacks in parliamentary numbers he makes up for in media influence.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

The disorder has since spread. At the weekend, far-right rallies and counter-protests took place in Belfast, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham, Hull, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool and Bristol. In Rotherham, masked rioters tried to torch a hotel housing asylum seekers. Authorities are on alert for further disorder this week. The national mood, then, is far from one of stability and moderation.

It was never going to be easy for Starmer and Labour. They have inherited a Britain that is in need of fundamental repair after the chaotic post-Brexit premierships of Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Whether it’s handling the parlous state of British public finances, a crisis-ridden National Health Service, or a prison system at the point of collapse, the problems are legion.

The wave of extremist violence, though, is most concerning right now. Many have feared this was coming. Across Europe, anti-immigrant populism has surged: see this year’s European parliamentary elections and the recent French snap elections. In Britain’s general election in July, 4 million Britons cast a vote for the right-wing populist Reform Party led by Nigel Farage, equating to 14 per cent of the vote share (the third largest behind Labour and the Tories). Farage has been restricted to a handful of seats in the House of Commons only thanks to the UK’s first-past-the-post electoral system.

But what Farage lacks in parliamentary numbers he makes up for in media influence. Consider his role during the past week. Farage shared a video suggesting that Merseyside police were not being entirely truthful about the Southport killings not being terror related. His intervention has been criticised for fuelling far-right conspiracy theories about “two-tier policing” (which allege police give preferential treatment to minorities).

Starmer and Labour have responded judiciously. They have drawn a clear line between protest and violence. They have established a “new national capability” to support police forces in tackling violent disorder. While being careful not to give Farage political oxygen, they have named the extremism responsible. On Sunday evening, Starmer condemned “far-right thuggery”, vowing that those participating in violence “will face the full force of the law”.

This latest bout of far-right hooliganism may soon subside. If it doesn’t, the government may consider proscribing groups such as the English Defence League as terror groups. But such a move may only have limited effect. Much of the current extremist activity has now shifted into a “post-organisational” mode. Agitators mobilise through social networks rather than through formal organisations.

There remains the need to restrain how social media platforms enable disinformation and radicalisation. On Facebook and X, algorithms seem to keep pumping outrage and conspiracies into users’ feeds, without any real check.

In political terms, the current troubles highlight how Labour will need to handle carefully the issue of immigration. During the election campaign, Labour pledged that it would bring down immigration numbers and control Britain’s borders. Yet can it find a way to talk in terms that aren’t seized upon by the likes of Farage and the far right?

This challenge goes to the heart of Starmer’s goal of national renewal. Given the state of democracy, such renewal is only possible through rebuilding trust in politics. And it will require a new sense of national purpose.

It’s little wonder that Starmer has spoken frequently about building “a government of service”. Or that Starmer’s brand of social democracy has been built on ideas of patriotism. Two of his government’s key initiatives, for example, include the creation of Great British Energy (a publicly owned energy company) and Great British Railways (which will bring passenger rail services into public ownership).

Beneath the clamour of summer disorder, there is an ideological contest forming about how Britain can be made great again. One that pits a reformist patriotism of the centre left against a nationalist populism of the far right. It is a contest between renewal and disruption. Between those who believe politics be remade from within, and those who are giving up on the system. At least as it’s playing out in the UK, social democratic patriotism is shaping up as the great hope of moderate democracy.

Tim Soutphommasane is a professor in political theory and chief diversity officer at the University of Oxford. He is a former race discrimination commissioner.