The hundreds of arrests made after violent rioting will hamper attempts to rebuild the crisis-hit criminal justice system, the justice secretary warns, as ministers begin to assess the long-term fallout from the worst outbreak of public disorder in more than a decade.
Keir Starmer is already facing calls to hold an official review into the causes of the riots, which have so far led to more than 700 arrests. At least 30 sentences have so far been handed down, while almost 120 suspects are being held in custody.
Hundreds of police officers remain ready to be deployed this weekend should more unrest emerge.
Writing in the Observer, Shabana Mahmood praises the justice system for demonstrating it could “rise to this challenge” after the outbreaks of violence, adding that plans have been made to ensure that anyone involved in further lawbreaking would be pursued “until the last offender languishes in one of our jails”.
But Mahmood denounces the previous government for presiding over court backlogs and crowded prisons that left the criminal justice system vulnerable to the kind of public disorder witnessed over more than a week.
In a frank assessment of the inevitable longer-term fallout, she writes: “We must make no mistake. Rising to this challenge has been made harder by doing so within the justice system we inherited from the Conservatives.
“Because of their failure, we have record crown court backlogs. We were left with prisons so close to overflowing that we had no choice but to release some prisoners… a few weeks or months early.
“The impact of these days of disorder will be felt for months and years to come. They make the job of rebuilding the justice system harder.”
Her comments come with ministers desperately hoping that the outbreaks of violence, triggered by online disinformation about the identity of the suspect alleged to have killed three young girls in Southport, have now subsided.
The parents of Bebe King, 6, who died in the Southport attack, revealed on Saturday that their older daughter, Genie, witnessed the attack and managed to escape. They praised her “incredible strength and courage”, while describing Bebe as a “sweet, kind and spirited girl”.
Lauren and Ben King said the support from the local community and beyond “has been a source of incredible comfort during this unimaginably difficult time”.
There are now demands for an inquest into the rioting. Dame Sara Khan, who served as Rishi Sunak’s independent adviser for social cohesion and resilience until May, said that the new government should now address a series of “chronic policy failings” that had contributed to the unrest.
She said a review into the riots would help explain why “some towns and cities did not erupt in riots or violence while others did”.
“Warning signs had been flashing red for some time and yet the last government did not build the necessary strategic approach to pre-empt and prevent such threats,” she writes in the Observer.
She pointed to the need for a counter-extremism strategy, as well as to closing gaps in legislation addressing extremist propaganda, “legal but harmful” content and extremist conspiracy theories.
“The challenge facing the new Labour government is one that cannot be ignored,” she writes. “These dreadful riots and eroding trust in our democratic model show that overlooking long-term policy areas like social cohesion is now untenable.”
Mahmood, the most senior Muslim in the government, revealed that she too had felt fear in the wake of far-right rioting. She said she understood why some people had expressed that they were “no longer feeling safe” as a result of the racism present during some of the rallies.
The prime minister is continuing to work between Chequers and No 10, having delayed a holiday in order to monitor any further disturbances.
Meanwhile, Mahmood and other ministers are beginning to assess the inevitable impact on prisons, courts, community relations and the police. Prison governors had already warned that a surge in inmates could further destabilise England’s already packed jails.
Ministers scrambled to find an additional 500 prison places after the riots. That came on top of plans announced last month to free up 5,000 places before Christmas by releasing prisoners after they have served only 40% of their sentences.
Hundreds of court hearings were postponed at the last minute in the spring after ministers introduced emergency measures to deal with overcrowded prisons. Meanwhile, there is a backlog of more than 68,000 cases in the crown courts, according to the Law Society.
Mahmood said the unrest had offered a “sobering reminder of how much worse things might have been” had the government not taken early decisions “to address the crisis in our criminal justice system before it was too late”.
Starmer also raised the teetering prisons system as one of his priorities in the days after his arrival in Downing Street.
However, a Conservative source said that releasing prisoners early was ultimately always a political choice and the Labour had used the option too readily. “We expanded prison capacity and delivered 13,000 new prison places to make sure our prisons continued to function effectively,” they said.
