Warning: this piece contains a discussion of death, discrimination and violence involving minors.
It has been over a month since rioting erupted in towns and cities across the UK. The chaos was sparked by the murder of three children in Southport and the racist disinformation which surrounded the attack. As the riots have dropped out of the headlines it would be nice to be able to brush over them with a coat of fresh ignorance, however their xenophobic roots cannot be ignored.
The riots must serve as a wake up call to the new Labour government, which must learn that the rhetoric surrounding immigration and the policies concerning immigration needs to be changed. They shouldn’t overlook the dangerous role of social media in the spiralling of these riots either. Discussions need to be had about the ease with which disinformation can spread and the power that social media bosses wield. If Labour fails to learn these invaluable lessons, the shape of British politics could look very different come 2029.
The far-right riots that gripped the early August headlines started in Southport following disinformation surrounding the identity of the teenager who had been arrested for a stabbing attack in the small seaside town. These riots quickly spread to other parts of the UK, with riots taking place in places like Sunderland, Hartlepool and Manchester. The most horrifying scenes were in Rotherham where rioters attempted to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers. To date, over 1,000 people have been arrested in connection to the riots with hundreds receiving sentences. These riots must be viewed in the context of an immigration debate that has lunged violently to the right not just in the UK but across much of the western world.
The dangerous rhetoric that haunts discussions about immigration has been exacerbated by figures like Nigel Farage and policies like the Rwanda deportation scheme. However the current Labour government has also failed to change the course of the narrative. During this year’s election, in which they triumphed over a doomed Conservative party, Labour continued to talk about the need to significantly lower immigration instead of defending its merits against the snarling attack dogs of the Tories and Reform. In office they have also stated their desire to increase removals and re-open immigration centres, policies that feed the right wing lie that immigration is a force of evil.
Keir Starmer has been strong in his criticism of those rioters enraptured by anger over the state of immigration in “their country”, but he has failed to understand the role he can play in countering the ideas which drove rioters onto the streets. This means condemning hateful language and promoting a positive image of immigration, an image that can be clearly seen in the impact that it has on our culture and the vital role it plays in our economy. It also requires that Starmer foster compassion, to stop the dehumanising effects of the current narrative. This could come in the form of the opening of safe routes for asylum seekers and making sure their stories are heard.
As well as being a moral stance, changing the narrative is also important for Labour on a political level. The shifting of British politics towards the right has been clear to see in recent years, with increasingly right-wing-populist language lingering on the breeze of political dialogue. If Starmer and his newly elected government allow this shift to continue then it will seriously harm their chances of re-election in 2029. The Conservatives, who look set to move even further to the right under new leadership, and a Farage-led Reform will thrive in a political environment that is so focused on immigration as the cause of our problems.
What Starmer has also been forced to realise is the immensely harmful influence of social media. The prodding knife of social media left its bloody marks all over the riots, allowing the fast and disruptive spread of disinformation. Since the takeover of X by Elon Musk it has become an even more potent weapon for the far right’s stoking of racial hatred. Musk has allowed the re-entry of many controversial right wing commentators to the platform he now owns, including Tommy Robinson, a man synonymous with Britain’s far right. Musk himself has been at the centre of the spread of disinformation. During the riots in the UK he shared posts that criticised the policing in the UK as being less lenient to right wing “protestors” and claimed “civil war was inevitable”.
Taking on such an influential international institution will not be easy, but measures need to be taken to restrain the power wielded by these platforms. In the wake of the riots there have been calls for new and improved online safety laws. Although the 2023 Online Safety Act has increased the liability of social media bosses, it has clearly not gone far enough. As Musk has shown, they can still act with near impunity and the act has failed to stop the spread of hateful language as well as disinformation. It remains important that Starmer stands up to social media platforms, ensuring that fines are implemented if they fail to control this harmful content.
Unity and solidarity are qualities often hard to grasp in a world which seems as hopelessly divided as ours. From the inferno of hatred of August’s far right riots however, came an overwhelming response of community and solidarity with the millions of vulnerable people that had come under attack. What the “counter protests” showed was that despite the cries of intolerance usually being the ones that sound the loudest, the real power lies in a collective voice united by compassion. It is this idea that gives me belief that the Labour Party will listen, and the debate can be changed.
