Labour aren't for white working class and when they do talk to them it's to patronise them - Royston Smith

What came next was also unjustified. Misinformation lit the touch paper and the simmering tensions which have been evident for years exploded onto the streets.

Opportunist thugs and thieves used the tragedy in Southport as an excuse for violence, vandalism and looting. They had no interest in those grieving families. If they did they would not have behaved in that way.

But there is a bigger picture and many know it but are too frightened to discuss it. Putting your head above the parapet and suggesting all is not harmonious does come with a health warning.

If you don’t conform to the establishment view of the world you are labelled far right. You are attacked, aggressively, by those who disagree with you and by calling you far right they are deliberately attempting to draw parallels with the worst people in history.

I am sure Margaret Thatcher, who warned about increasing numbers of immigrants in the eighties, would have been labelled far right for her views. It’s a throwaway line deployed by the left, but one which will almost certainly come back to bite them.

If we mention immigration and the pressure it puts on left-behind communities we are shut down or cancelled.

Hampshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones, dared to suggest that arresting people for disorder is, "Treating the symptom and not the cause.”

She was roundly criticised, particularly by Labour Members of Parliament, who suggested her comments were divisive and inflammatory.

In fact, they are entirely accurate and those who sought to cancel her will soon discover that they, in government, will have to address these issues.

Labour has a significant challenge. They stopped representing working-class people decades ago leaving them to seek support in fringe parties like the BNP, UKIP, the Brexit Party and Reform.

In 2019 those same communities abandoned Labour an masse and voted Conservative, many for the first time.

Every time Labour nail their colours to the mast it is for anyone, as long as it is not the white working class, who they find so offensive. When they do talk about them it is to patronise them.

Boris Johnson talked a good game but chucking millions into regenerating failing town centres did nothing to redress the imbalance or share opportunity. It’s not about taxing the rich and redistributing to the poor in handouts. It’s about giving the least well off the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

During the Brexit referendum, the arrogant establishment said those who voted Brexit didn’t understand what they were doing. The people with all the power and influence are doing the same when it comes to immigration, accusing those with concerns about mass migration of being racist.

LATEST OPINION:

• Game set and match to the far-left Unions mob - Labour has only just begun - Kelvin MacKenzie
  
• Deep deep shame on BBC for disgraceful Valdo Calocane Panorama - Peter Bleksley
• Free speech is a precious right - but not an absolute one - Nigel Nelson

It isn’t enough to say that people don't understand, the job of the politician is to find solutions and this volatile situation has now landed firmly on Sir Keir Starmer’s desk.

Over 700 migrants crossed the English Channel on August 11 and that is set to continue as Labour abandons any attempt to deter the crossings.

We talk about net migration numbers but the figures of total immigration make an even more alarming reading. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in 2023, 1.2 million people migrated into the UK and 532,000 people emigrated from it, leaving a net migration figure of 685,000.

Labour is too scared to talk about the effects of mass migration. But they are in government now, and if they refuse to talk about it they shouldn’t be surprised when someone else does.

If they fail to deal with this issue soon, what we have seen across the country in the last few weeks could become very much worse.