Polling carried out by YouGov in the wake of the riots found 85 percent of Britons opposed the unrest, but the public also think there are longer-term political causes, with two-thirds of Britons saying immigration policy over recent years had contributed to the situation.
Conleth Burns, associate director of polling firm More in Common, said it was crucial to stress that people might see immigration policy as part of the context but they don’t see that as a justification for violence.
What the government must somehow confront is “broader disillusionment,” according to Burns, which encompasses ”frustration with immigration, which is absolutely there, but also frustration about GP appointments and the cost of living.”
Imran Hussain, Labour MP for Bradford East, said there were other underlying factors too, saying: “Those committing violence on our streets have been emboldened by public figures who’ve espoused vile anti-migrant sentiment and stoked up culture wars for decades.”
Starmer has some advantages in confronting this specific threat to social order, in the form of a pretty united party fresh from victory, and a strategy guru, Morgan McSweeney, who cut his teeth battling the British National Party in Dagenham in East London.
A key part of his approach there was to clean up the streets, offering tangible repairs, but it remains to be seen if that can be repeated on a much larger scale.
