Home Secretary says ramped-up police response to stay in place

The Home Secretary has said the ramped-up police response to potential further riots would continue and suggested it was having an impact on stemming days of disorder.

Yvette Cooper met with police officers and Deputy Commission Dame Lynne Owens at the Metropolitan Police’s specialist operations room in Lambeth on Thursday.

She was asked by the BBC if the deployment of a “standing army” of 6,000 officers would continue over the weekend.

She said: “We’re going to continue with this strong policing response, making sure that there are additional police officers ready to respond.”

After police were braced for disorder on Wednesday that largely failed to materialise, Ms Cooper said that expedited arrests, convictions and sentencing, as well as the thousands of additional officers on the streets, were having an impact.

The fast response from the criminal justice system “does show people that you really will pay the price for these crimes,” said Ms Cooper.

She added that the police are also continuing to pursue those involved in rioting on the ground as well as those orchestrating it online.

“As we speak, there are officers scouring some of the videos, the social media, making sure as well they’re pursuing consequences for people online who have been organising this violence, as well as people offline, people who have actually been on the streets demonstrating this thuggery.

“There will be consequences.”

Ms Cooper said prosecutors would also continue to pursue those inflaming tensions and stoking racial hatred online.

She said police officers have told her that facial recognition technology being used to identify those responsible has often led them to find that some suspects have previous criminal records.

“You’ve got prior, long-standing criminals who have then been involved in some of this violence and disorder,” she added.

Sir Keir Starmer said earlier he was convening a Cobra meeting to “reflect on last night but also plan for the coming days”.

Despite more incidents of violence being largely curtailed, the Prime Minister insisted it was “important that we don’t let up”.