UK could face summer of riots, adviser warns

Riots could break out across the UK this summer as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic take hold, a scientific adviser to the government has warned.

Professor Clifford Stott said there is a risk of disorder on a scale last seen during the London riots in August 2011 – sparked by the police shooting of Mark Duggan – if urgent efforts are not made by forces to quell any potential unrest in the neighbourhoods they serve.

The member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) sub-committee on behaviour said mass job losses and rising unemployment due to coronavirus, as well as concerns about racial and economic inequality, may all be factors which could fuel “confrontations” in the coming months.

A possible divide between poorer and more affluent areas brought on by local lockdowns – if brought into force – could also have an effect, the professor of social psychology at Keele University, who has advised the Home Office on public order strategy, warned.

Speaking in a personal capacity during an interview with the PA news agency, he said: “If the police don’t invest in building positive policecommunity relations now, there is a potential for serious and large public disorder to emerge this summer.

“I think in the worst case scenario it’s not inconceivable that we could have disorder on a scale equivalent to August 2011.

“What we need to do is to make sure we start addressing the underlying causes now, so that the conditions that led to the 2011 riots are not in place should we get a precipitating incident.

“Put simply, the most effective thing that the police can do is put bobbies on the beat.”