May Warned That Rioters Could Target 2012 Games

Gangs involved in last month's riots could attempt to disrupt the 2012 London Olympics, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, was told yesterday.











Fears over attempts to disrupt the Games have been privately relayed by a former police officer to the Commons home affairs select committee, which is examining the worse wave of unrest to hit England for 30 years.

MPs on the committee confronted her with the warning from a recently retired officer who served on Operation Trident, the Met's operation against gun crime in the black community. Ms May, appearing before the committee, acknowledged the danger that the gangs could use the Olympics as a catalyst for looting and violence.

She said the team planning Olympic security was examining the riots to see if there were implications for the safe staging of the Games. David Cameron originally blamed gangs for much of the trouble and said he was seeking advice from Bill Bratton, the US police chief, on tackling the problem.

However, Ms May accepted the proportion of gang members involved in the unrest was "not as high as people first thought". But she added: "There is some evidence that obviously there was some gang activity taking place in terms of encouraging people to take part in these events and as we saw, some of that encouragement was being propagated on social media."

She announced she was staging an international conference next month to share ideas for the best way of tackling gang culture. Ms May refused to be drawn on the causes of the sudden outbreak of rioting.

May To Hold Summit On Gang Culture

Theresa May, home secretary, is to host an international summit on how the country should deal with gangs, as part of the government’s response to last month’s riots.












Ms May, who appeared in front of MPs at the home affairs select committee on Thursday, conceded that only about a quarter of those involved in the violence in August are now thought to have had gang affiliations – fewer than thought. However, she said it was still vital to bring the problem under control.

“We are looking as widely as possible at what has worked [elsewhere] to make sure that what has worked is put in process,” Ms May said.

The home secretary reiterated that the government will also be canvassing the views of organisers of successful gang projects in the UK, such as the Strathclyde police scheme in Glasgow and another council-funded initiative in Waltham Forest, north London.

The prime minister has already announced that Bill Bratton, former chief of both New York and Los Angeles police departments, will be flying to the UK to give advice at the event in October.

However David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham – the borough in which the rioting started after the fatal police shooting of local resident Mark Duggan – suggested the focus should be on reassuring communities that the police would be able to restrain criminals more effectively in the future.

“We must never, ever allow criminals and gang members to run the streets,” he told the committee in an impassioned outburst. “The advances in community policing were important, but it needed to go further.”

Mr Lammy said he had concerns about Operation Trident, the Metropolitan Police’s campaign to reduce gun crime in the black community, which organised the operation when Mr Duggan was shot.

“When police come in from outside the borough, things can go wrong,” Mr Lammy said.

The MP added that he had seen evidence that riot perpetrators had been inciting violence on BlackBerry Messenger days before the disorder in Tottenham began. “I am deeply worried that the police seemed unaware of these networks,” Mr Lammy told the committee.

Separately, in a speech at the children’s charity Barnardo’s, Sadiq Khan, shadow justice secretary, castigated Ken Clarke, justice secretary, for making “simplistic assertions” when he called rioters a “feral underclass”.

“This kind of language absolves people from responsibility for their actions, implying that somehow they had no self-control or no choice,” Mr Khan said.

“Instead we will be looking at how we can make young people responsible citizens who understand the consequences of their actions and have the opportunities and the means to stay away from crime.”

Hague Unveils Foreign Office 'Renaissance'

The UK is bringing ambassadors out of retirement and improving training as part of a drive to bring about a "renaissance" at the Foreign Office.









William Hague claims his department declined in status under the previous government.

More staff are also being sent to emerging powers like China and India.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said the FCO's status had declined under the previous Labour government.

But former foreign secretary Jack Straw said Labour had increased spending on the FCO and accused Mr Hague of setting out "a parody" of the department.

Speaking at the FCO's Whitehall headquarters, in central London, Mr Hague said: "I formed the firm view in opposition that the Foreign Office had been devalued and sidelined in British government, too often ignored by prime ministers and weakened as an institution.

"After years in which the level of ambition of ministers has been that government departments are simply fit for purpose, in the Foreign Office we have set ourselves the goal of excellence in every crucial area of our work."

Staff turnover

When he arrived at the Foreign Office, Mr Hague said he "found evidence that dysfunction and rivalry" in the relationship between ministers had "corroded ties between the FCO and its closest partners" in government.

"In my first weeks in office I received advice warning me about a planned overseas visit by another secretary of state, assuming that I would want to stop that visit going ahead and advising me how to do this.

"It spoke volumes about the relationship between some ministers under the last government that officials believed this would be what I wanted.

"It may also reflect the astonishing turnover in junior ministers in the Foreign Office in recent years."

"Spending on the Foreign Office rose under Labour and is being cut under Hague"
Jack Straw Former Labour foreign secretary

In May, the foreign secretary announced plans for five new embassies: in El Salvador, Kyrgyzstan and South Sudan, and in Madagascar and Somalia when local circumstances permit.

Extra offices are set to open in the world's fastest growing economies including Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and Indonesia.

Mr Hague also told MPs there would be 50 extra British staff in China and 30 more in India.

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall said the plans were "a tall order" at a time of swingeing Whitehall cuts, but they reflected a general shift in focus away from seeing the world solely as a globalised network towards the old-fashioned business of diplomacy between nation states.

Mr Hague told the BBC his plans were achievable despite a 10% budget cut, and insisted it would be "a false economy" to reduce Britain's overseas presence when there were "more and more centres of decision-making in the world".

'Strong on rhetoric'

"We have to be under their skin, we have to really know them, their languages, just going to international meetings in not sufficient," he said.

"We've got to have the strong, deep bilateral relationships as well and I think that point was missed by the previous government."

But Mr Straw, who was Labour foreign secretary between 2001 and 2006, rejected Mr Hague's allegations, calling his speech "strong on rhetoric and very short on facts".

"Spending on the Foreign Office rose under Labour and is being cut under Hague," he told the BBC.

"His description of the Foreign Office when I was there is not one I recognise. What he sets out is a parody."

Mr Hague said his department was spending £1m more a year on language teaching and diplomats were being equipped with "sharper economic skills" through beefed-up training.

He also pledged greater emphasis on "cultivating and retaining knowledge throughout the institution" by ensuring the expertise of senior diplomats was not lost after they retired aged 60.

To do this, an advisory group of former ambassadors and other diplomats will be set up to offer advise to ministers on policy.