Sir Keir Starmer is turning out to be something of a lucky general. The Prime Minister appears to have passed his first big test in government by quelling the violent and ugly unrest that has marred towns and cities across Britain in recent days. His tough stance on law and order – hundreds of arrests, rapid sentencing, and a huge police deployment to snuffle planned far-right protests – is working. Even so, the PM is taking no chances, with police forces ordered to ‘remain on high alert’: 6,000 riot officers will be deployed over the weekend as officers wait to see if the worst of the violence is finally over.
Starmer is lucky in the sense that this crisis has played to his strengths as a former public prosecutor. In his role as director of public prosecutions, Starmer oversaw the fast-track jailing of almost 1,000 people in the aftermath of the London riots in 2011.
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