Downing Street has confirmed there will be an emergency response meeting on Monday after more than 150 people were arrested following violent disorder in UK towns and cities over the weekend. It comes after Sir Keir Starmer condemned an attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and promised those involved in unrest would face “the full force of the law”.
Police responded to violent scenes in Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Bolton and other parts of the UK on Sunday.
The Cobra meeting follows some of the worst rioting the UK has seen in recent years, in the wake of the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport last week.
Various parts of England and Northern Ireland have seen violence break out in the days since, which politicians say has been fuelled by misinformation on social media and far-right groups inflaming tensions. Cobra meetings, or Cobr meetings as they are often also called, are named after Cabinet Office Briefing Room A on Whitehall.
It is an emergency response committee, a get together of ministers, civil servants, the police, intelligence officers and others appropriate to whatever they are looking into.
Monday’s meeting of the emergency committee will be intended to provide the government with an update on the violence over the weekend and the response in the coming days. It will involve relevant ministers and police representatives.
Sources have suggested this should be seen in the context of meetings that have already taken place, such as one between the prime minister and police chiefs last Thursday, and a meeting of senior ministers on Saturday.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said there are “obviously” issues around social media, which acts as a “rocket booster behind both the spread of misinformation and also the organisation of this violence. Social media companies need to take some responsibility; we also need to make sure that criminal activity online is being pursued”, she told BBC Breakfast.
Source: BBC
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