Belfast: Violent Disorder

Gavin Robinson Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

My hon. Friend is right to raise concerns about the disturbances and disorder we saw in Southampton recently. The scenes in Southampton and Belfast—of course, we have also seen them in other parts of the United Kingdom—are utterly abhorrent, and it is ridiculous for the people who participate in that kind of criminality to sometimes describe themselves as patriots. They are not patriots. They do not believe in our country; they want to undermine our country. The real patriots are the people in the police force who are dealing with the disorder and criminality. On my hon. Friend’s second point, I give him an absolute assurance that those who decide that they want to engage in violent criminal disorder will face the full weight of the law.

[Gavin Robinson (Belfast East) (DUP)]

I am extremely grateful to Mr Speaker, to the Minister for his condemnation, and to the hon. Member for Belfast South and Mid Down (Claire Hanna) for securing another opportunity to raise these important issues. The condemnation has been strong, and the condemnation from the Minister has been appropriate. He is also right to highlight that you cannot protect British values while tarnishing them and trampling on them, destroying the rule of law, and intimidating members of our community—putting them out of their homes and destroying their lives. That is not British, and that is not what we need in our country.

As Security Minister, he has a number of responsibilities, and I urge him to look at the swift processes for asylum applications that were deployed three years ago. I understand that the individual in question regarding what happened on Monday was most likely not even interviewed as part of the asylum process, given the constrained timescales. I also understand that individuals just give a name and a date of birth, and that there is no database to confirm whether that name and date of birth are true. Without making any comment on the individual in question, that is a huge loophole in the security of our nation. There is a need to engage with the Government of the Republic of Ireland and ensure we have uniformity, including in the protection of our borders, and I ask the Minister to commit to doing so.

[Dan Jarvis]

The right hon. Gentleman made an excellent point at the beginning of his remarks about the activities we have seen not being British. I completely agree with his analysis of the situation, and I hope he acknowledges my very long-standing interest in, and affection for, his part of the United Kingdom. Lots of right hon. and hon. Members feel a huge sense of determination to support him and his colleagues in the important work they are doing.

The right hon. Gentleman raised a number of other points, and he will understand that I am joined on the Front Bench by the Minister for Migration and Citizenship, who was also listening very carefully. Of course, when a situation such as the one we have seen in recent days occurs, the Department will want to look very carefully at the circumstances of that case. In general terms, some of the metrics relating to some of the right hon. Gentleman’s points are heading in the right direction, not least initial decisions on asylum being up by 71%. The Government are determined to make sure we are processing claims much more quickly and effectively than was the case previously. However, we will give further consideration to his points and should he wish to discuss them, I would be very happy to do so.