Keir Starmer and the 2011 London riots: the lessons for today's unrest

Keir Starmer has ordered a new "standing army" of specialist police officers to be set up to tackle the far-right riots that have broken out across the UK and warned those taking part that they would "regret" their involvement.

The prime minister's "law and order response" to the violence that began in Southport "should not surprise anyone", said the i news site, because he had previously been a "key part of the justice system" that dealt with the 2011 riots in England.

What happened in 2011?

The death of Mark Duggan sparked riots across the country in August 2011 after he was shot dead by police who believed he was carrying a gun and posed a threat. For five nights, London was "engulfed by fire and violence", said the BBC, and by the end of the rioting five people had died.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Starmer is "an expert" on the current challenge because he was director of public prosecutions during the 2011 unrest, said Adam Boulton on Sky News. He kept the courts open 24/7 to process offenders by triggering the "additional courts protocol". Starmer said afterwards that the speed of processing cases "may have played some small part in bringing the situation back under control".

What were his tactics?

Starmer explained that he didn't think people "gamble on the length of sentence" that they might face, but on whether they will be caught and sent to prison. "And if the answer is: 'I'm now watching on the television some other people who had been caught 24 hours or 48 hours after they were on the streets with us' – I think that's a very powerful message."

But he allowed magistrates to hand down harsher punishments and "many will remember the tough sentences" of 13 years ago, said i news, including a four-year sentence for two men who used Facebook to incite disorder, and a man who was handed six months in prison for stealing £3.50 worth of water.

There was a "relaxing of the thresholds to determine whether to press charges, and a push for longer jail sentences", said The Times. More than 3,000 arrests were made and almost 2,000 people were charged with offences related to the riots.

A lawyer who represented clients during the riots described the response as "brutal" and the London Evening Standard said that although the "swift and severe" judicial response "effectively restored order in the short term", it also "sparked debate about the balance between deterrence and fairness".

Starmer is "well placed" to deal practically with a "crisis in the sphere of law and order", said The Guardian, because "he understands the importance of quick justice, both in getting criminals off the street to avoid prolonged violence and in deterring others from taking part when they see their fellow far-right rioters make life-ruining choices in less than a week".

What might he do now?

If there is "more trouble" this summer then Starmer will "make sure the authorities do what he did then", said Boulton. Sources have told The Times that a blueprint now being drawn up includes the first reprise of 2011's "additional courts protocol", which can be deployed in response to an unexpected surge in criminal cases caused by a significant incident.

This would enable judges to direct magistrates' courts to "extend their sitting hours", including overnight and during weekends, and would provide additional capacity if police forces begin arresting hundreds of protesters, "ensuring they could be brought before the courts as quickly as possible".

Triggering the protocol requires the agreement of the current director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, and the heads of the relevant police forces.

Speaking to Sky News, policing minister Diana Johnson said: "You'll recognise that the prime minister was the director of public prosecutions in 2011 when we had similar issues", and the courts at that stage "did sit through the night", so the PM is "very well-versed" in "what's needed".