Decades of deprivation behind UK riots present an immediate challenge for Keir Starmer

Seven of the UK's 10 most deprived areas witnessed unrest

Riot officers hold back protesters near a burning police vehicle in Southport, England. Getty

Racial hatred, Islamophobia, right-wing agitators and dire social media misinformation were the apparent causes of Britain’s anti-immigration riots, yet analysis shows a more deep-rooted reason is the deprivation in parts of England that has been ignored for decades.

Labour is scrambling to address the first major crisis of its five-week-old government while the evidence points to a very clear link between the areas that suffered riots: many occurred in the poorest towns in the country.

Seven out of the 10 most impoverished areas witnessed unrest. Blackburn, Blackpool, Hartlepool, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester and Middlesbrough register in that top 10, according to the government’s Indices of Deprivation.

Damningly for the previous Conservative government, it capitalised on these towns' cheap hotel accommodation to house thousands of asylum seekers who were then terrifyingly caught up in the riots.

The poorer areas have also been settled by many of Britain’s Muslims, which has led in some instances to a rise in Islamophobia through a lack of integration and education, Islamic leaders have told The National.

Given that many of those sentenced to jail over the riots do not to have any track record of violence, it also appears that hardcore right-wing agitators have capitalised on deprivation to embolden others.

Sadly, it has largely been forgotten that the riots were initially sparked by the stabbing of three young girls, who it was reported incorrectly on social media had been killed by a Muslim asylum seeker. The teenager who was later charged is a Christian born in Wales to Rwandan parents.

Far-right activists in Sunderland. Getty

Poverty and rioters

For now, the week-long riots appear to have ebbed, with the massive anti-racism demonstrations against the far-right anti-immigrant protesters on Wednesday evening showing that Britain remains a tolerant multicultural society.

But to prevent a repetition, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government will have to launch an investigation into the issues of poverty, anti-Muslim sentiment, racism, integration and immigration.

The task force to formulate a political strategy is likely to be led by Mr Starmer’s most trusted aide, Morgan McSweeney, who helped overcome right-wing extremists in London.

The previous Conservative government, much criticised for the high cost of housing unprocessed migrants that currently amounts to £6 million a day, put them in cheap hotels, mostly found in impoverished areas.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Metropolitan Police Command and Control Special Operations Room in London. AFP

This meant, Labour MP Afzal Khan told The National, that the new government had been “lumbered with a very difficult inheritance”.

Anti-immigration sentiment had grown during the Conservatives' 14 years in power with the problem largely ignored, said Mr Khan.

“These are issues that Tories had been ignoring or have at times been peddling themselves, and now the new Labour government has to deal with them,” he said.

Rob McNeil, deputy director of the Migration Observatory, said migrants were entering communities “that are already socio-economically deprived” with a lot of unemployment “which can contribute to a sense that there is competition for scant resources”.

Deprivation, integration and violence

Police said they had made 595 arrests for offences including affray, violent disorder, theft and antisocial behaviour since the riots began on Tuesday last week.

Visiting a police control centre on Friday, Mr Starmer stated that 6,000 officers would be on standby to handle disturbances over the weekend and that he would address the social media issues.

“We’re going to have to look more broadly at social media after this disorder but the focus at the moment has to be on dealing with the disorder,” he said.

Former Conservative Welsh secretary David Jones argued that while the riots were inexcusable, “that's not to ignore the fact that those frustrations exist in areas of poverty”.

“In poorer areas there's going to be a certain amount of resentment at people who have no previous connection with this country being put up in hotels when a lot of people are worrying about where the next meal is coming from,” he added.

He urged Mr Starmer to pursue an intelligent response that would result in “less resentment and people feeling more inclined to integrate” adding that the “lack of integration is a severe problem and does need to be pursued”.

People gather against an anti-immigration protest in London. Reuters

The issue of integration among Muslim communities has also been raised by Muath Alamri, UK director of the Muslim World League.

“They bear a little bit of responsibility, not that much, because some of them got integrated with the community and some didn't,” he said. “But the rest of the responsibility lies with the non-Muslim community, plus the UK government.”

He argued that the widespread failure to implement an integration strategy had in part led to “misunderstanding about Islam and the culture of Muslims”.

“Addressing that is the first step to the solution, let's have an open dialogue and answer their hard questions about Islam and Muslims,” he said.

“Muslims want to participate in developing the country, spending their time, effort, money and energy here so we can't question their loyalty to the UK. They are here to build, not to harm.”

But he contended that non-Muslims had been exposed to considerable “hate preachers of false information”, who needed to be held accountable.

He added that the Muslim World League, the largest Islamic NGO that is endorsed by 1,200 Muslim scholars, wanted to “extend our hand to the government to work towards peace”.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood meets faith and community leaders in Solihull, West Midlands. Reuters

Northern council cuts

Further research has shown that the top 10 per cent of England’s most deprived council authorities have suffered 30 per cent cuts to their budgets, compared to just 10 per cent reductions for the richest 10 per cent of councils.

Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham councils all experienced cuts of a third or more in recent years and disturbances in the last week.

But the riots go against the grain of people’s attitude to migrants in Britain, with only 17 per cent of people today saying that you have to be born in the UK to be “truly British”, down from 48 per cent in 1995.

There are also infrastructure issues at play, such as the decline in local bus services in the last decade trapping people in their hometowns and well as the closure of a third of England’s public libraries and an inability to get doctor’s appointments.

Missing out

It was “a very complex issue” said Mr Jones, who retired as an MP last month, and there would have to be a long-term project to resolve it. He urged Labour to continue the Tories' idea of “levelling up” the north of England where poverty is highest.

“Parts of the country that have missed out, that were once prosperous need to be given ways of feeling more prosperous again and feeling better about themselves.”

A counter-demonstrator against anti-immigration protests in Oxford. AFP

“The difficulty is that a lot of these are areas that have lost their raison d'etre,” he added. “You've got workforces there that are not fully employed, that have seen massive changes during individuals’ lifetimes and seen decline that is bound to breed resentment.”

The answer was “a lot of investment in those communities” as well as addressing the issue of “communities co-existing without integrating, that leads to tensions”.

Poor legacy

But what is clear is that the legacy of the Conservatives’ asylum seeker system is a poor one, not helped by the former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s policy of attempting to deport migrants to Rwanda.

Although the government has closed more than 185 hotels housing asylum seekers, 36,000 currently remain in hotels. Labour plans to end their use, reverting instead to military sites and barges after hiring 1,000 extra caseworkers to process claims.

It is now crucial to create a system that is “fair, workable and commands public confidence”, said Andrew Harrop, director of the Labour-aligned Fabian Society.

“But we should remember that the UK and Canada are the two countries in the world that have done integration best and we should celebrate that, but also recognise that the pace of integration isn't fast enough.”