‘People feel crime has no consequences’: Cooper says respect for police must be restored after riots

Yvette Cooper said ‘we must take action to restore respect for the police and respect for the law’ as well as punishing those responsible for rioting

Home secretary Yvette Cooper has said respect for the police must be restored after they faced “brazen abuse and contempt” during rioting.

Attacks on local communities and police are a “disgraceful assault on the rule of law itself,” she said.

“As home secretary, I am not prepared to tolerate the brazen abuse and contempt which a minority have felt able to show towards our men and women in uniform, or the disrespect for law and order that has been allowed to grow in recent years,” Ms Cooper wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “As well as punishing those responsible for the last fortnight’s violent disorder, we must take action to restore respect for the police and respect for the law.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper near the scene in Hart Street, Southport, where children were killed in a knife attack (James Speakman/PA Wire)

She said it was crucial to maintain a strong police response on the ground and keep up the pace of arrests and prosecutions. Around 6,000 officers have been mobilised to respond to incidents of violence and disorder around the country.

“Lots of people across Britain have strong views on law and order, immigration, and the NHS. But they don’t pick up bricks and throw them at the police, loot shops or wreck cars, attack people because of the colour of their skin, or set light to buildings knowing people are inside,” Ms Cooper said.

“The prime minister and I made clear to the police at the outset of this disorder that they would have the government’s full support in taking the strongest possible action against every level of perpetrator.”

Riots spread across the country in the wake of the killings (Getty Images)

Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has warned the impact of last week’s disorder will be “felt for months and years” in the criminal justice system, saying the riots will set back the government’s plans to fix the system. The justice system was already facing a massive backlog of court cases and dwindling space in prisons.

Writing in the Observer, Ms Mahmood said her department has risen to the challenge of “bringing rapid charges against these thugs and hooligans”, but she said the task was made more difficult by the inheritance from the previous Tory government.

The justice secretary said: “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.

“They also offer a sobering reminder of how much worse things might have been had this Government not acted fast, a few weeks ago, to address the crisis in our criminal justice system before it was too late.”

Shabana Mahmood has warned the impact of the riots will be felt for years (AFP via Getty Images)

Over the weekend, police continued to charge people and courts have continued to progress cases in relation to the unrest that followed the Southport stabbings.

Former policing minister Chris Philp urged forces to take a zero tolerance approach to the intimidation of journalists, describing instances of reporters being chased away by rioters as “deeply concerning”.

A number of journalists faced harassment and intimidation while reporting on both the riots and the counter protests.

Writing in the Telegraph, the shadow leader of the Commons also called for social media firms to clamp down on “manipulative disinformation”, adding: “The real-world impact of fake news and clickbait shock content on social media is now clearer than ever.”

Sir Keir Starmer has cancelled plans to take a summer holiday as the Government continues to deal with the fallout from the rioting.

He had instructed police to stay on high alert at the weekend, but no widespread unrest materialised.

Anti-racism protesters gathered in London, Belfast and Edinburgh. Thousands demonstrated outside the headquarters of Reform UK.