Belfast: Violent Disorder Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Belfast: Violent Disorder

Adnan Hussain Excerpts
Wednesday 10th June 2026

(1 month, 2 weeks ago)

Commons Chamber
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Dan Jarvis Portrait Dan Jarvis
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The hon. Gentleman is right to raise concerns—which I am sure will be shared throughout the House—about the attacks on health service workers, to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude for their incredible work. He is also right to raise concerns about activity taking place online. As I said in an earlier response, we take that very seriously and work on it across Government.

I think it important to reiterate that both my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral West (Matthew Patrick), are in Northern Ireland today. I know that they will be talking to colleagues, I know that they will be consulting widely across this place to ensure that the support we provide is proportionate, and I know that when there is more that we need to do to help, the Government’s door will be open.

Adnan Hussain Portrait Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)
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The pogroms that we witnessed last night should shock the nation. They were horrific in every sense, and are bound to have left minority communities across the country terrified. We saw widespread scenes of violent disorder, with homes ablaze, and there were reports of people’s cars being stopped and checked on the basis of their race. The depraved scenes of violence that triggered the eruptions last night were also horrific, and understandably provoked anger.

These are scenes more reminiscent of the darkest chapters of history than of modern Britain. We must be honest: something is profoundly wrong. Why is it that isolated incidents are repeatedly followed by such extreme and widespread eruptions of violence? What failures of policy and governance over the decades have brought us to this point, where anger and vulnerability have become so dangerously heightened and so easily exploited?