UK Riots

For nearly two weeks, the UK witnessed the most violent social unrest in more than a decade. Triggered it seems by the far-right’s reaction to the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift dance class in the town of Southport, the violence  spread to almost thirty towns and cities, with shops looted, hundreds arrested and hotels housing immigrants and mosques attacked.

So what does this really say about the state of the UK, a matter of weeks into Keir Starmer’s premiership? And what really is the role of online disinformation, which many are blaming for the violence? 

In this edition of The Agenda, Juliet Mann speaks to Former Chief Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, Dal Babu, Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, and Roger Griffin, Emeritus Professor of Modern History at Oxford Brookes University to find out.