Katharine Birbalsingh, often referred to as Britain’s Strictest Headteacher, has called for a rethink on multiculturalism after riots in Southport and London.
Chaos erupted after the deaths of three children in Southport in a crazed knife rampage.
Protesters have clashed with the police in chaos that has ensued and some made a mosque in the seaside town the target of their ire.
Speaking on GB News, Birbalsingh said “of course” some of those in attendance will have been far-right, but the term itself is “thrown about relatively liberally”.
Katharine Birbalsingh says multiculturalism has led to scenes we have seen in the past few days across England
GB NEWS
“Of course there will have been some far-right protesters there and rioters and all the violence is shocking”, she said.
“Obviously the targeting of the mosque is awful. The term far-right is often thrown about relatively liberally. I am often far-right, for instance.
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“I’m not being told that I’m helping the far right. What helps the far-right is multiculturalism that fails. The thing about multiculturalism is that it’s difficult to make it succeed.”
Birbalsingh called for a new approach to the matter after tweeting on X that the Government will “cross their fingers” and hope the meshing of different communities works.
“We make is succeed at my school. We handle it very carefully and we understand the necessity of having an overarching culture that all the children buy into”, she said.
“They will sacrifice things that they think are really important for themselves in order to better the whole.
Birbalsingh joined Mark Dolan on GB News
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“That is what we require from everyone. When we do that, multiculturalism succeeds.
“In order for it to succeed, we need to stop this business of just throwing the term far-right around. What it does it says, ‘those people are simply unacceptable, multiculturalism is great except for those people’.
“I think that’s problematic because it undermines what we all want, which is for us all to get along with each other.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is set to hold an emergency meeting with senior police officers in Downing Street after a second night of unrest in parts of England.
Riot police hold back protesters after disorder broke out in SouthportGettyIn London, more than 100 people were arrested after protesters in Whitehall launched beer cans and glass bottles at police and threw flares at the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.
Demonstrators wearing England flags and waving banners saying “enough is enough” and “stop the boats” had congregated outside Downing Street in the wake of the killing of three young girls in a knife attack in Southport, which social media posts had wrongly claimed was carried out by a Muslim asylum seeker who crossed the Channel in a small boat.
The angry scenes also included loud chants of: “We want our country back” and: “Oh Tommy Robinson,” referring to the right-wing activist. One man wore a shirt with the slogan: “Nigel Farage for Prime Minister, Tommy Robinson for Home Secretary.”
Confrontations continued late into the night in Hartlepool, where demonstrators set fire to a police car and pelted officers with missiles, including glass bottles.