Politics

London riots 10 years on: Risk of unrest higher than ever, says Labour



Steve Reed, MP for Croydon North, made the comments as he unveiled a Labour Party report, ahead of the ten year anniversary of the riots on Friday, that found the social and economic conditions affecting communities identified at the time are “worse” now than they were in 2011.

He also claimed Boris Johnson had done “absolutely nothing” as Prime Minister to ensure recommendations of the original panel into causes of the violence were delivered.

Mr Johnson, who was Mayor of London at the time, was forced to return home from holiday before being booed on a visit to Clapham Junction which saw some of the worst rioting.

In an interview with the Standard, shadow communities secretary Mr Reed said: “You can’t talk in terms of ‘there will be riots, there won’t be riots’. All you can talk about is risk.

“What’s happened is that in the 10 years since the riots, since Tottenham and Croydon went up in flames and people lost their homes and their businesses, that risk has got bigger.”

His report, Ten Years After the Riots, says that as many as one million “forgotten families” are out of reach of support – double the number of a decade ago.

Steve Reed

/ PA

In 2011 the Riots, Victims and Communities Panel led by Darra Singh investigated the causes of the violence and highlighted “forgotten families” where many of the young people involved in the riots came from.

Mr Reed, who was the leader of Lambeth Council at the time of the riots, added: “I see this report as an alarm bell that we can’t afford to ignore.

“If we want to make sure we don’t see the rising levels of youth violence that we’ve seen over recent years, then we really need to provide support to the families that are struggling to bring their children up safely, so that those kids get the same decent chance of the good life that we expect for our children.”



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