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Sir Keir Starmer has told police to stay on “high alert” as more far-right rioters received lengthy jail terms on Thursday, with police braced for further unrest on the streets in the coming days.
The UK prime minister thanked the police and those in the wider criminal justice system at an emergency Cobra meeting held on Thursday evening, according to people briefed on the event.
Starmer also said there was no doubt that the levels of policing “in the right places”, as well as the swift application of justice and sentencing over the past week, had acted as a deterrent to further violence.
During the day, a pensioner in Liverpool and a teenager from Hartlepool were among those sentenced as courts across England held fast-tracked hearings to deal with those involved in the past week’s violence.
More sentencing is expected on Friday, including for those charged with online crimes.
According to the National Police Chiefs’ Council, officers have made 483 arrests and more than 150 charges have been brought, while several forces have conducted “dawn raids” against individuals suspected of taking part.
Ministers are hoping “swift justice” can help dissuade would-be rioters and prevent further disorder.
A feared wave of violence on Wednesday night failed to materialise.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said potential rioters had been “defeated” by a “show of force” from the police and a “show of unity from communities”, after anti-racism rallies were held across the country in locations that had expected far-right gatherings.
Starmer has met Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, on multiple occasions since the unrest began.
Jaswant Narwal, Chief Crown Prosecutor in North London, said the Crown Prosecution Service was putting up extra resources, including teams working in the evenings and through the night, to bring charges.
“The sentences that the judges are passing are clearly sentences not just for punishment, but also for deterrent,” she told the FT, adding that offenders in court were sometimes “in tears . . . in broad daylight realising what they’ve done”.
A Labour councillor in Kent, Ricky Jones, was arrested and suspended from the party following allegations that he said people involved in violent unrest need to “all have their throats cut” during a rally in Walthamstow on Wednesday evening.
Metropolitan Police said on social media platform X that they had arrested a man in his 50s in south-east London — confirmed by Labour as Jones — who was being held on suspicion of encouraging murder and an offence under the Public Order Act.
Starmer has summoned police chiefs and other senior figures to review plans to grip the unrest in the coming days, as he warned it was “important we don’t let up”. Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson earlier said there would be “further intelligence of events during the next few days”.
Those jailed on Thursday include William Nelson-Morgan, 69, who received a 32-month sentence after he admitted charges of violent disorder and possessing an offensive weapon — a small wooden truncheon — in Liverpool.
Judge Andrew Menary KC said he was “part of a crowd of about 100 people who were running amok, setting fire to bins and damaging local property”.
He told the pensioner at Liverpool Crown Court: “Your advancing years plainly did not prevent you from playing an active part”. It took three police officers to detain him.
John O’Malley, 43, also received a 32-month jail term after he took part in disorder near a mosque in Southport last week. Menary said he was “at the front of what was essentially a baying mob”.
At Teesside Crown Court, Bobby Shirbon, 18, was sentenced to 20 months’ detention in a young offenders’ institution after he pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal damage and two charges of violent disorder.
In Plymouth, Michael Williams, 51, received a 32-month term after he pleaded guilty to violent disorder. Judge Robert Linford described him as a “thug” who had “run amok”.
Williams had been arrested while carrying a stone that he claimed was a “healing stone”. Linford called his explanation “ridiculous”.
Sentencing him alongside another individual at Plymouth Crown Court, Linford said: “The word’s going to go out from this court . . . If you come here and you do this you are going inside, and you are going inside for a considerable period of time.”
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