How The UK Riots Brought Keir Starmer’s Downing Street Honeymoon To An Abrupt End

The Labour Party was utterly jubilant a month ago.

Keir Starmer had just swept to victory in the general election, with a majority which almost rivalled Tony Blair’s famous 1997 landslide.

The party had a mandate to do almost anything it wanted, after 14 long years in opposition – meaning Starmer could be pretty ruthless.

As if to demonstrate this, the new prime minister swiftly removed the Labour whip from seven MPs for voting against the government over keeping the two-child benefit cap.

And pollsters YouGov found 44% of Brits had a positive view of the new man in No10 two weeks after he was elected – a clear sign he was enjoying a nice honeymoon period as premier.

Rishi Sunak had also very conveniently set up a series of conferences with international leaders too, giving the new PM an early opportunity to look statesmanlike on the global stage.

His ministers also went into overdrive, happily blaming the Conservatives for the state of the country and setting out their plans to fix it.

Britain’s deep-seated problems – including a crumbling NHS, a housing crisis and a £22bn black hole in the public finances – were still there, but the early signs were that the public were so happy just to see the back of the Tories that they were willing to cut the new Labour government some slack.

Then the horrific Southport stabbings happened.

Three girls aged under 10 were killed while at a Taylor-Swift themed summer holidays dance class, while eight others left in a critical condition, by a knife-wielding attacker.

As the country reeled from the senseless violence, Starmer went to a vigil for the deceased – and faced his first bout of public anger since getting into office.

One person sarcastically shouted at him, “here’s your photo opportunity,” while another said: “How many more children? Our kids are dead and you’re leaving already?”

Little did Starmer realise at the time that the seeds had already been sown for his first full-blown crisis as prime minister.

Within hours, the tragedy was hijacked by others also frustrated with the government – but for very different reasons.

Far-right extremists, motivated by anti-immigration sentiment and social media disinformation around the identity of the alleged killer, clashed with police across Southport.

Starmer issued a statement on the consequences of such violence the following day, but the spark had already been lit on the simmering discontent among those who were unhappy at the number of immigrants coming to the UK, many of them on small boats across the Channel.

More than 100 far-right agitators were arrested outside the gates of Downing Street that same evening.

A judge even revealed the identity of the suspect to debunk the false claims spreading via social media the 17-year-old was an asylum seeker or on an MI6 watch list.

But it was clearly too late – the horse had already bolted, and the riots continued to wreck havoc all over the country across the next seven days.

Faced with constant headlines about this chaos, the public seemed to collectively decide that the shine had come off Starmer.

According to the polls, the percentage of Brits unhappy with him had quickly crept up to 53% by August 6, with just 37% still having a favourable view of him.

YouGov also found 31% of Brits thought the riots were being handled well by the prime minister, compared to 49% who thought it was being handled badly.

It seemed Starmer’s inability to quell the violence had frustrated both ends of the political spectrum. 

Some wanted the riots to be declared as “domestic terrorism,” while others  argued the violence was founded in legitimate concerns.

But a senior Labour source appeared pretty relaxed about what this means for the new government, telling HuffPost UK: “Who would have thought a month ago that we would have been dealing with this? But it’s the nature of government.

“Events happen and you have to deal with them.”

While the PM did deliver some robust speeches from No.10 about cracking down on far-right thuggery and creating a “standing army” of police officers to deal with the disorder, he ignored the cross-party calls for parliament to return so MPs could debate the government’s response.

And a few of his regular critics, like Reform MP Lee Anderson, jumped on the general frustration around the riots and claimed Starmer had poured petrol on the fire with his stern words last week. 

Starmer also ended up batting away right-wing conspiracy theorists (including none other than Elon Musk) who alleged the UK had “two-tier policing” and supposedly favoured people of colour.

One cabinet minister insisted that the prime minister was on top of the situation.

“Keir is completely getting a grip of it and is speaking to all of the relevant agencies, including the court service and police, every day,” they told HuffPost UK.

Then, on Wednesday, the UK braced itself for more than 100 planned riots, while the police were ready to deploy 6,000 officers for any more unrest.

Perhaps the extremists were cowed by the “cold shower of reality” provided by the lengthy sentences other far-right thugs had already been given for their roles in the violence.

They were also vastly outnumbered by anti-racism counter-protesters who rallied in cities and towns across the country.

Although Labour did leap into action by suspending a councillor who called for the far-right to “have their throats cut” amid an anti-hate protest the next day, it definitely seemed like the British communities had stepped in to deal with the riots themselves.

But what happens if further riots take place this weekend, as many senior police and government figures fear? Will voters’ frustration with Starmer’s response grow?

It’s a question No.10 may well be asking themselves. This “summer of madness” may not be over yet.