Rapid review of extremism announced - as Yvette Cooper accuses Southport rioters of 'hijacking grief'

Yvette Cooper has announced a “rapid review of extremism” following the violent disorder in towns and cities throughout the UK earlier this summer.

Announcing the review, the home secretary also accused the rioters, who took to the streets after the fatal stabbings of three young girls in Southport, of “hijacking grief”.

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She also pledged “thousands more” neighbourhood police and support officers as part of five “next steps” to improve community cohesion.

In a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, Ms Cooper said: “While millions of decent people across the country were praying for bereaved families, a criminal minority of thugs and extremists saw only an opportunity to hijack a town’s grief.”

Bebe King, six, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town on 29 July.

The violence broke out after false rumours were circulated online claiming the suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat.

Ms Cooper said she has long been concerned that “not enough” was being done to “counter extremism, including both Islamist extremism and far-right extremism”.

She claimed there had been no proper strategy in place since 2015, adding: “I have ordered a rapid review of extremism to ensure we have the strongest possible response to poisonous ideologies that corrode community cohesion and fray the fabric of our democracy.”

Ms Cooper also announced a review into the response of police, saying the systems they had to work with “were too weak”.

The review will look at lessons from the riots to ensure “strong co-ordination and intelligent systems are in place and that there is sufficient public order policing for the future,” she said.

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Also included in her list of next steps was that technology secretary Peter Kyle would “strengthen the requirements for social media companies to take responsibility for the poison proliferated on their platforms with the rollout of the measures in the Online Safety Act”.

Ms Cooper clashed with her Tory counterpart James Cleverly over the plans, after he suggested Labour takes some forms of violence more seriously than others.

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He said: “Does she now also recognise that the Labour leadership kneeling in the immediate aftermath of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) disorder, when violent protesters attacked police officers, looks like her party takes some forms of violence less seriously than other forms of violence?

“And does she accept that any perception whatsoever of treating the same crimes differently based on the race, religion or community of the perpetrators increases tension rather than reduces it?”

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But she accused the Conservative leadership hopeful of “making a pitch to Tory party members” rather than offering a serious response, and in a nod to his BLM remarks said he was “trying to blame the prime minister for something that happened four years ago” as contributing to “violent disorder on our streets this summer”.

More than 500 people have been charged in relation to the riots, with many handed lengthy jail spells after their court cases were fast-tracked.

Earlier on Monday, the wife of a Tory councillor pleaded guilty to publishing written material to stir up racial hatred, while the sentencing of a 12-year-old boy was adjourned because his mother went on holiday to Ibiza.

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