Disorder in Ballymena

Baroness Fox of Buckley Excerpts

Wednesday 11th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely right. His experiences of bringing people from across Northern Ireland together are one of the reasons we are now in the position we are with peace in Northern Ireland. We are talking about appalling disturbances in the UK but that are not of what happened during the Troubles.

With regard to legacy, I do not doubt that there will be many opportunities to discuss in your Lordships’ House how we will fund legacy going forward, though funding is in place. With regard to funding for the additional national security impact, the Chancellor announced in the other place during the spending review that, over the course of the spending review, there will be an extra £113 million allocated to the PSNI. That is direct from the United Kingdom Government and in addition to the grant that it receives from the Northern Ireland Executive.

[Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, noble Lords are right that there is no justification for the riots, and they are depressing to see. However, has the noble Baroness noted that commentators have, for some time, noted that local people have been raising immigration-related issues as a source of tensions—which is what the original, peaceful demonstration was about? What are the Government’s plans to tackle the specific underlying community issues that these horrible riots have thrown up?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My Lords, it is very important that we understand exactly what has happened in Northern Ireland. While I cannot comment on specific cases, the original vigil was not specifically about immigration but a much wider issue, about something that had happened.

With regard to the issue of immigration, I have the statistics about the impact, or not, on this part of Northern Ireland. The reality is that what we have seen in the last 48 hours is members of the community, wherever they were born, caught up in violence and being scared. There is an onus on all of us to make sure that what we are talking about deals with some of the underlying issues, as exist across the United Kingdom, and with the specifics of rebuilding a community that has been touched by horrendous violence.