David Cameron to outline further riot measures

 

More than 1,300 arrests have been made in London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester since the unrest began

 

David Cameron is expected to outline further measures to deal with recent disorder in England when MPs are recalled for an emergency debate.

A huge police operation and heavy rain in some areas appear to have prevented a fifth night of disorder.
And magistrates in several cities have been working through the night to deal with those arrested on previous nights.
In Birmingham, a vigil has been held for three men who died after being hit by a car while protecting property.
The prime minister has chaired a meeting of the government's emergency committee Cobra to discuss the violence with cabinet ministers and he will later make a statement on the rioting during an emergency session of Parliament.
He is expected to give details of financial help for people who have lost homes or businesses.
Meanwhile, Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, has told the BBC its members have voted unanimously to hold an inquiry into the causes of the riots.
It will also look at the role of social networking, the police response and police resources.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the government's first obligation was to "show that we can keep our streets safe".
"It's a basic need that we've all got to know that our homes, our shops, our communities can be kept safe at times like this," Mr Clegg told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"I think the immediate priority is to see through what the police have been doing successfully in the last few days, which is getting on top of the situation, making sure that the streets are safe again, getting people into court and getting them behind bars where appropriate."
He said longer-term debates were needed in the coming weeks and months but this would start in Parliament later.
On Wednesday, Mr Cameron said the "fightback" was under way and said every action would be taken to restore order, with contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours' notice.
It is the second time in less than a month that MPs have been recalled for an emergency session - the first was for the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World newspaper.
In other developments:

• More than 90,000 people have signed an online petition calling for anyone convicted of taking part in the riots to lose any benefits they receive
• Up to 250 officers were sent from Scotland to help police in the Midlands and North of England deal with rioting and disorder
• The Met says 16,000 officers will be available in London for the next 24 hours and this will be reviewed on Friday
• Police in London say they have more than 100 arrest warrants to work through "in the coming hours and days"
• The government launches a website with advice to the public on how to cope with the unrest
• Saturday's Premier League match between Tottenham and Everton at White Hart Lane has been postponed

Meanwhile, the Met Police have made a total of 888 arrests and charged 371 people in connection with violence, disorder and looting in the capital since Saturday night.
More than 330 people have been arrested in the West Midlands and a further 140 people have been arrested so far over the trouble in Manchester and Salford.

Spotlight on Cameron

Norman Smith Chief political correspondent, BBC Radio 4

For David Cameron the riots were a moment of maximum crisis - and yet there are those around him who hope he may yet emerge strengthened.
The looting and violence, they argue, actually plays to one of Mr Cameron's long standing narratives about the Broken Society.
The response of ordinary people in coming together and cleaning up their local communities also chimes with his belief in the Big Society.
Many traditional Tories, they say, will also have been delighted by his clear and uncompromising stance on law and order, with his promise of more arrests, more prison places and his dismissal of "phoney concerns about human rights".
But their biggest hope is that though Mr Cameron appeared to stumble at the start of these riots with his belated return from holiday, he has since got a grip and shown leadership.
In short the hope is the riots need not prove the potential political catastrophe for his premiership that many had predicted.

Courts sat through the night in London, Manchester and Solihull in the West Midlands to deal with people arrested during the four nights of disturbances, with those appearing in court mainly facing disorder and burglary charges.

Mr Cameron said anyone convicted of violent disorder would be sent to prison.
But Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh said some officers who had been on the streets had voiced disappointment at the sentences handed out so far.
Mr Kavanagh added that there had since been "constructive conversations" between the home secretary, the Met commissioner and the courts.
"We're very keen to make sure that communities within our cities feel confident in the policing and that we can then get back to some sense of normality," he told BBC News.
London Mayor Boris Johnson praised the police, and insisted the authorities were not "complacent" despite the violence subsiding.
"Nobody should be in any doubt that the problem is over or that we are remotely complacent about this," he told reporters after the Cobra meeting.
Met Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin paid tribute to his officers after the meeting.
"We faced unprecedented violence and damage and criminality and looting, and they were so brave," he said.
"Any suggestion the officers stood back is wrong."
Police cuts A deputation of Labour MPs from London went to the Home Office on Wednesday to demand a "moratorium" on plans to reduce numbers in the Metropolitan Police.
Labour shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "It is staggering and utterly shameful if it has taken these appalling events for ministers to start waking up to what everyone else has known all along," she said.
"Cutting 16,000 officers - the equivalent of every officer on the streets of London last night - at a time like this is deeply irresponsible."
But Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it was "simply ridiculous" to link the disorder to government policies or police cuts which had not been implemented yet.
He said the government believed the cuts were "entirely manageable - and will allow the police in the future, just as they have today, to deploy large numbers into areas where that is needed".
London's Conservative mayor Boris Johnson is standing by his call for a rethink on police funding but senior government sources say the Treasury will not reopen negotiations on the spending review.
Home Secretary Theresa May has repeated her belief that police budgets can be reduced without damaging their ability to do their jobs.
'Truly dreadful' A candle-lit vigil has been held for Haroon Jahan, 21, Shahzad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31, who died when they were hit by a car in Birmingham on Tuesday night.
Police have been given more time to question a 32-year-old man on suspicion of murder.
Mr Cameron said the deaths were "truly dreadful" and offered his condolences to the men's families.
The riots first flared on Saturday after a peaceful protest in Tottenham over the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, by police.