Starmer urges Johnson to hold cross-party talks in Northern Ireland after six nights of violence – live

The Police Service of Northern Ireland held a news conference a bit earlier to provide an update on last night’s rioting. Temporary assistant chief constable Jonathan Roberts was taking the questions. Here are the main points he made.

• Roberts said that what happened last night was “at a scale that we have not seen in recent years in Belfast, or further afield”. He said the police had not seen “sectarian violence” like, with large groups involved on both sides, for some time.

• He said there was a level of “pre-planning” involved. He explained:

You don’t come by such volumes of petrol bombs and missiles and fireworks without pre-planning, so there was a scale of planning and orchestration to it.

• He said what happened was “disgraceful”. He said:

The crowds grew in numbers and attacked each other with multiple petrol bombs and multiple missiles, including masonry and fireworks and attacked police.

The scenes we saw were disgraceful in terms of the seriousness of criminal acts that were being carried out and the violent disorder.

We also saw a bus being hijacked, it was an extremely distressing incident for the bus driver and the people on the bus at the time.

We had two other vehicles set on fire and pushed against the gates.

• He said he could not confirm that paramilitary groups were involved. He said some of those involved in the rioting were not from paramilitary groups. As for whether paramilitary groups were involved, that was still “an active line of investigation”, he said.

• He said that there had been two arrests so far, and that 55 police officers had been injured in the last few days. But he said the injuries sustained by the police were “on the whole relatively minor”.

• He said some children as young as 13 or 14 were involved. They were being “encouraged and supported by adults who stood by and clapped and cheered”.

• He said there would be a full investigation into what happened.

• He said the police were aware of other events being planned for the coming days. The police would be monitoring them, he said.

A spontaneous act of solidarity has taken place at Belfast city hall for the driver of a bus that was hijacked and setting alight in the city on Wednesday evening, PA Media reports. PA says:

Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) assistant general secretary Owen Reidy said it was a demonstration on behalf of the entire trade union movement to support the driver, who has been left shaken by the incident.

“Theirs is an act of generosity towards their fellow bus driver who was shockingly attacked last evening and towards the brave police officers and journalists who were also assaulted while doing their job and serving the community,” he said.

“Workers across Northern Ireland will not accept being the subject of attacks when going about their duties. The Translink workers are standing up and proclaiming this loudly.”

From the BBC’s Jayne McCormack

Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, is flying to Northern Ireland in response to the violence, PA Media reports. PA says:

Lewis is expected to meet political leaders from the main political parties, as well as faith and community leaders after flying into Belfast on Thursday afternoon.

Among the politicians he is set to talk to are first minister Arlene Foster, from the DUP, and deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill, from Sinn Fein.

Stewart Dickson, an Alliance MLA, is now winding up the debate.

He says the violence may be orchestrated by “sinister criminal elements”.

But young people are being implicated. He says their future may be on the line if they end up with a criminal record.

What are needed are peaceful solutions. He says he thinks he has heard a desire for that expressed during the debate.

The actions of political leaders have consequences, he says. He says there were “no excuses” for what Sinn Fein politicians, including Michelle O’Neill, did at the funeral of Bobby Storey.

He says he he does not think O’Neill realises the immensity of the challenge she faces restoring confidence after this.

But she also says that Arlene Foster’s fall for the resignation of the chief constable over the funeral was not constructive. He says Foster should not be undermining confidence in the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

On Brexit, he says they need to move to a “light touch” implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.

Ending his speech, he says the message is that the violence must stop. And he urges MLAs to show full support for the police.

And that’s it. The debate is over.

The current Ulster Unionist party leader is Steve Aiken. In the debate he told MLAs:

Organised criminal gangs bringing out children, young people and others to commit acts of destruction helps no-one and no cause.

The imagery this portrays of 21st century Northern Ireland into our second century is not something that anyone should want to see. This violence must stop before anyone is killed.

Mike Nesbitt is a former UUP leader, not the current one, as an earlier post wrongly said. That’s been corrected. I’m sorry for the mistake.

Back in the debate the DUP’s Trevor Clarke criticises the police for facilitating the Bobby Storey funeral. He says there is no doubt that that happened.

He says he wants to end the violence. But MLAs need to listen to the concerns being expressed, he says.

He says the assembly needs to look at the issues causing concern. “There is real, palpable anger out there today,” he says.

The DUP’s Joanne Bunting says rioting is never acceptable, but the people who are engaged in it have seen that in the past it has paid off – sometimes because it has led to areas getting extra funding.

And she says those involved will have seen the law being “blatantly broken” at the Bobby Storey funeral. She says that implied there was one law for one group, and one law for another. And it confirmed her view that Northern Ireland has “two-tier policing”, she says.

She says she has been arguing this for five years. And she says although the police force is supposed to engage with all communities, working-class protestant people feel neglected.

She says she does not approve of the way these people have expressed their anger. But their fears and concerns are real, she says.

Mike Nesbitt, the former leader of the Ulster Unionist party, says that when he used to work in broadcasting, he was used to hearing Northern Ireland’s politicians arguing furiously on TV. But in the green room afterwards they were much friendlier, asking about each other’s families.

He says he would like to stand shoulder to shoulder with all members of the assembly on solving Northern Ireland’s problems.

But he says they are being held back by the fact that Sinn Fein has not apologised for what happened at Bobby Storey’s funeral.

He also says there has been a failure to tackle deprivation. He says the areas that were the most deprived 10 or 20 years ago are still the most deprived.

UPDATE: I’ve corrected the first sentence. Nesbitt is a former UUP leader, not the current one.

Mervyn Storey, a DUP MLA, used his speech in the debate to criticise the attitude of some Sinn Fein politicians. He said they had shown “a barrage of disrespect” to Northern Ireland’s centenary. He also complained that the SDLP had told unionists to “suck it up” when the DUP expressed concerns about the Northern Ireland protocol.

And he also criticised Naomi Long, the Alliance leader, for saying people were lied to over Brexit. People should mind their language, he said.