On Tuesday Sir Keir Starmer held his last Cabinet meeting before the summer recess and said that it is almost a year since the Southport killings and the riots that followed.
Starmer then asked the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to update the government on how they are tacking social cohesion.
Rayner warned that “economic insecurity” and immigration on local communities is having a “profound impact on society.”
A statement reads, “The prime minister closed cabinet by saying it was almost one year from the horrific attacks in Southport, and the whole country will never forget this unimaginable tragedy.
He asked the deputy prime minister to update on the critical work she has been leading on social cohesion and the upcoming plan for neighbourhoods, which will underline how vital it is that we are repairing and improving the social fabric, trust, and integration in communities across the country.
The deputy prime minister said that economic insecurity, the rapid pace of deindustrialisation, immigration and the impacts on local communities and public services, technological change and the amount of time people were spending alone online, and declining trust in institutions was having a profound impact on society.
She said it was incumbent on the government to acknowledge the real concerns people have and to deliver improvements to people’s lives in their communities.
She said seventeen of the eighteen places that saw the worst of the disorder last summer ranked at the top of the most deprived, and while Britain was a successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith country, the government had to show it had a plan to address people’s concerns and provide opportunities for everyone to flourish.
She said as part of this the upcoming plan for neighbourhoods would deliver billions of pounds of investment over ten years in hundreds of the most deprived places, to restore pride in people’s local areas and improve people’s lives.
