Weekend of violent UK protests leads to emergency Downing Street meeting | BBC News

Cobra meeting the Prime Minister sakir stama has held an emergency response meeting with senior police leaders as they look to deescalate the farri violence in England and Northern Ireland following the Fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport a week ago that Cobra meeting finished in the past hour here you can see the Met Police Commissioner s Mark roley leaving and he does push microphones out of his way number 10 yet to share any details about what was discussed at that meeting misinformation about the identity of the Southport attacker spread on social media led to the farri riots police forces across the UK have now made more than 400 arrests since the disturbances began and that number is expected to rise ahead of the Cobra meeting the Home Secretary Avet Cooper condemned what she called the disgraceful scenes of violence and thuggery promising Swift Justice to those involved in the unrest now this is footage taken from social media which has been looked by our team at BBC verify it shows rioters starting Fires at a holiday in express hotel in Tamworth now stafire police said an officer was injured during what they described as acts of thuggery 12 officers were injured in rotheram in South Yorkshire where they had been trying to prevent a mob from storming another hotel believed to house Asylum Seekers police there have vowed to find all those involved in the unrest well on Saturday there was unrest in Stoke Manchester Bristol Nottingham Hull Leeds Belfast and Liverpool with more yesterday in Rotherham Tamworth Bolton wouth and Middlesboro well as I said that emergency Cobra meeting has ended within the last hour let's go live to our political correspondent Nick erley What was discussed who is in Downing Street uh Nick do we know who was there and any word on what was discussed yeah no confirmation of what was said yet Nikki from that meeting but there's a couple of things that I think will have been pretty high on the agenda one is what police have learned from the last few days there was a lot of talk this morning in number 10 about what should be done over the next few days an indication I think of the concern that there is in government that this is going to continue that there is going to be more unrest so I know that one of the key topics of conversation was going to be Lessons Learned From the weekend and what that could mean for the next few days the other one it'll be really interesting to see what comes out of this is what is going to happen in terms of social media you were just discussing the mess and disinformation that's been sparing on social media over the past week or so I know that ministers have been in conversation with some of the social media companies about what can be done to try and address that I think frankly It's tricky to do this is a conversation that's come up a lot over the past couple of years the last government you will remember passed the piece of legislation the Online safety act which didn't actually deal that much with disinformation which led to some criticism but it'll be interesting to see whether the government puts any more pressure on social media companies to come up with more solutions to deal with some of the disinformation that's been spreading over the last few days One of the people arrested has been charged also interesting we heard from South Yorkshire police the assistant chief Constable saying that one of the people that they arrested has been charged and is in court and saying we will find you all yeah one of the things that the government is hoping to do is to get people through arrest court and potentially into prison as quickly as possible to act as a deterrent you remember the kir starmer was the head of pro utions in England and Wales the last time we saw Mass riots in England in 2011 started in Tottenham and London spread to other parts of the country at the time his strategy was exactly that prosecute people quickly try and send a strong message that anybody who's involved in rioting unrest violence will be dealt with that's what the government wants to do again speaking to people in different parts of government I know they think there is enough space to get people through the courts quickly to deal with these um people as quickly as possible to try and send that message again so I wouldn't be surprised if something like that is comes out of this Cobra meeting in the next couple of hours we should get more of a sense of what's happened within the next half hour or so just to give you a sense of what happens in Westminster I'm outside number 10 just down from where I am there is a normally daily when Parliament sitting when parliament's not sitting weekly Lobby briefing with the prime minister's official spokesman takes questions on the record that is going on at the moment we can report the details of that once it's done but I'm certain that that will be dominated today by questions about what the government is doing in response to the violence we've seen over the last few days and what it thinks is going to happen next you mentioned Nick that Calls for Parliament to be recalled Parliament isn't sitting in at the moment but there have been some calls for it to be recalled from a number of quite high-profile MPS the former Home Secretary PR Patel Diane Abbott also reform leader Nigel farage um is that likely to happen do you think don't think it's going to happen right away speaking to people in number 10 this morning their view was that it doesn't need to happen right now but I do think if the unrest continues there will be more pressure for Parliament to be recalled remember that Parliament takes a break over summer it doesn't mean MPS aren't working but it does mean Parliament doesn't meet for about 6 weeks is not due to reconvene until the start of September so a month from now if this unrest and violence continues then I think that pressure will increase on the government to recall Parliament so I do think it is a distinct possibility if there is continued unrest but I would expect to hear more from the government about some of these things over the next couple of hours um I wouldn't be surprised if we hear from a senior minister in response to what happened at that Cobra meeting because the government wants to be seen to be on the front foot here despite the fact that it has been criticized by some for not holding that Cobra meeting earlier there is there was that press conference from the Prime Minister last Thursday where he responded to what had been going on there was that emergency statement in number 10 yesterday there's the Cobra meeting this morning the new government is determined to show that he knows how to deal with a crisis and that it is listening to police and what they say about what's happened over the next few days and what should happen over the next few days there's been a lot of violent disorder over the weekend but there were some peaceful protests as well and there's still the underlying issue that people are concerned about immigration and the impact it has on their local communities and going forward we're talking to uh some MPS want Parliament recall because that again is another issue that they can discuss everyone who we've spoken to this morning about that issue be it U members of the audience or be it politicians have distinguished between the two things that are going on here one is the rioting and the violence which has been universally condemned by pretty much everybody in mainstream politics that's what the prime minister's been talking about when he talks about far right thuggery when he talks about what it doing whatever it takes to bring these thugs to Justice his words there is a different issue which which is the concern that some people have about immigration we've seen some people contacting the BBC through five live Etc saying that they've been on some of these protests not because they're violent they're avoiding the violence but because they think that the issue of immigration needs to be taken more seriously but there is a difference I think a definite difference between people who want to have that debate about immigration and those who've taken part in some of the rioting over the weekend and I suspect when we next he from the Prime Minister and continually when we hear from cabinet ministers they will continue to say exactly that complete condemnation of what has happened over the past few days and some of the unrest we've seen but yes that broader debate about immigration Nick thank you for the moment I know you will go and find out if there are any words from that briefing you were talking about to journalists on that Cobra meeting and we'll come back to us with that information when you get it thanks very much for the moment that's Nick erley in Downing Street