Reform UK's MP Lee Anderson has said the Prime Minister may as well have “chucked a bucket of petrol over a fire” with his response to the riots and said “we know there is two-tier policing”.
He told GB News: “the people that are to blame for [the riots] are Parliament, and Nigel [Farage] touches on this every single day. He talks about the effects of mass legal migration, he talks about the effects of mass illegal migration.
“And people in this country are fed up, up and down the country, and we've seen the madness again this week. I think Angela Rayner is stating that the illegal migrants who have come over the Channel, she's going to disperse these all over the country.
“The problems we're having at the moment, which are shocking, are going to continue to happen unless we get to the nub of the problem and start having serious conversations with people in places like Ashfield and some of the places around the country that suffer these awful riots. Let's talk to these people and see what the problem is and try to put that problem right.
“[Farage] can ask difficult questions and make these statements, and a lot of it is thought-provoking. I will admit that from Nigel, but that's his job, and he's very good at it, and he doesn't shy away from the difficult issues.
“We've seen Starmer last week make this ridiculous speech on the steps of Downing Street. What did he do? He might as well have chucked a bucket of petrol over a fire, because it's just exploded over the past seven days.
“[Starmer] denies that there's two-tier policing…we are turning a blind eye to certain demographics in this country, and focusing all our attention, all our policing resources, on to another group of people.
“Yes, these people who are committing horrible crimes and damaging stuff and setting fire to cars and vehicles and buses and hotels. They need locking up, but it's got to be fair policing. At the moment, it doesn't look fair to me.
“If Yvette Cooper and Sir Keir Starmer have got anything about them they’d go and see [John Hayes] have a long conversation because I think he's bang on the money.
“He’s in his 60s, he's lived a life. He's been involved in an horrific incident. He must be thinking now he's lucky to be alive.
“He's had quite a long time now to think hard about this, what's happened to him, and what happened to those little girls. Now go and speak to him. Go speak to a real person that's been on the front line, and have a listen to what he's got to say.
“This is at Starmer’s door. He just keeps saying over the past week, it's far-right thugs. Yes, there are some far-right thugs out there on the streets. We know that. But a lot of people are just disaffected people, especially young men in this country.
“They’ve had enough, they don't see a decent future for themselves and their friends.
“Reform would have a sensible conversation on mass immigration. It’s affecting the whole of society at the moment. But first and foremost, politicians, instead of just locking people up, and yeah, and they should be locked up if they're committing these horrible crimes, go and speak to these people.
“These people not being listened to. Parliament doesn't represent this country at the moment, we know that for a fact. And if we don't listen to these people and try and find solutions to their problems, and by the way, it is mass immigration, then it's just going to continue forever.
“We can fill our prisons up. We can build as many prisons and prison cells as we want. This problem will continue to happen.
“It's dividing the country. It's alright appeasing one section of society, which [Starmer] has done at the moment, but he's actually divided the country.
“And this undercurrent is going to be there for a long, long time. And I fear for the future of this country. There are bitter, bitter people in this country. They’ve seen these men locked up today, and rightly so. But then they see the other two men from a few weeks ago in Manchester who actually beat these police women. They’re walking the streets. They’ve not even been charged yet.”
