Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire, Rupert Matthews, has said it is “not just the far-right causing unrest” and described comments by some members of the Labour Party as “unfortunate”.
Speaking on GB News, Matthews said: “It's not just the far-right that have been causing unrest recently. Previously we had trouble after the incident at the airport, we had trouble in Leeds and so on. So what worries me is there seems to be a readiness amongst people to go out on the streets, cause trouble, smash up property and attack the police.
“That's absolutely unacceptable, whatever the reason for doing it and I think the priority now has got to be to stop the civic unrest, to stop the public disorder taking place.
“Once that's taken care of then perhaps we can start looking at the grievances that people might have. There's no excuse at all for this sort of violence.
“There were five arrests [in Leicestershire] over the weekend, but there was a lot of disinformation on the internet as well. So one report said there were 20,000 people out on the street: it didn't even reach 200. So there was a bit of a problem, but we've dealt with it.
“Leicestershire police are very well equipped and they're very well led. We've got excellent training for our public disorder officers, and I took part in one of them as myself.
“I've read the report, I've seen the action plan for what Leicestershire police have got in hand. I'm absolutely confident that we can deal with what we're foreseeing happening.
“There's no two-tier policing in Leicestershire and Rutland, so I can say that straight away.
“I think it has been unfortunate that some of the members of the Labour Party, including ministers, have made some comments, which perhaps would indicate that they might take a more lenient attitude, depending on what the cause is that people are protesting about.
“But certainly, as far as I'm concerned, violence and disorder is absolutely unacceptable. It doesn't matter who's doing it. It doesn't matter what their cause is. That has got to be cracked down on straight away.
“I have been very clear and the Chief Constable has been very clear: Leicestershire Police are strictly neutral. It is not their job to judge the motives of people who are causing trouble. If you break the law, you're going to get arrested, end of story.
“There are wider issues going on here. A lot of people are really upset about what's happening but the first thing to do is get on top of the rioting, whatever the cause.
“We live in a democracy. The place for dealing with these things is through the ballot box. If you want to go out on the streets and protest, please do so peacefully.
“As far as the peaceful protests are concerned, I think that's quite clear. A lot of people are very unhappy with the level of migration, both legal and illegal, and they are feeling that perhaps the government hasn't been listening.
“Sadly, I think that's the case for a good number of years. Now, there may be reasons for that to do with the European Convention on Human Rights and some of the actions that are taken by the courts. Whatever the reasons, the upshot is a large number of people are not seeing the restrictions on immigration that they want to see and that is leading to some protests.
“Peaceful protests are fine. I've taken part in them myself. Violent protests, it doesn't matter what your cause is.”
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