‘You can shout but they don’t listen’ – Inside the simmering anger after the riots
The rat man from the council has just turned up. He is back at James and Oscar’s home laying more poison that the rats keep eating.
“I woke up the other night at three in the morning and one was biting my nose,” James says.
It’s the stuff of nightmares but it has become James and Oscar’s everyday struggle. A nearby building has the words “rat city” daubed on one of the walls.
“There was a fire next door,” Oscar explains.
“The rats came out of there and now there’s problems with them in the drains.”
He showed us around their overgrown garden. “It’s like a rats’ playground” he says, thoroughly fed up with it all.
The pair are friends and neighbours – and invited us in to discuss the riots that erupted across the UK in early August, including in their home city of Hull.
They were there on the fringes of the trouble but not, they tell us, directly involved.
It was a “kick back”, James tells us, over the UK’s failed immigration policies.
When Keir Starmer described the riots as “far-right thuggery” James believes he failed to grasp what was happening.
“I have seen people crying in doorways… they are cold, and they are hungry…who is helping the English-born people?” has asks.
“What I am not is a racist person… I just look at the pain in people’s eyes sometimes and you think, ‘What the hell? What is going on?’
“Their (migrants’) problems are getting solved but nobody is solving the problem of the people who are living on the streets.”
James and Oscar are angry that migrants stay in hotels while people around them struggle
Neither Oscar nor James work due to poor health and spend their days watching YouTube channels dedicated to investigating Britain’s immigration problems.
They are both angry about immigration, really angry.
While they ultimately blame the government they resent the way asylum seekers are put into hotels while their claims are processed.
“Get rid of them, I just think it is wrong,” Oscar says.
“I ain’t got a problem with being in other people’s countries and I haven’t got a problem with them being in mine.
“But when it’s taking away all our necessary needs – hospitals, dentists, hotels… housing. It is just pfft…” He throws his arms up in the air in despair.
Riot police had to defend a hotel housing migrants in the city
The pair watched as rioters surrounded a hotel next to the station in Hull on 3 August.
It’s currently home to dozens of predominantly young men waiting to hear if they will be allowed to stay.
James acknowledges there was appalling racism that day and says he has sympathy for genuine asylum seekers.
“I don’t think everybody thinks like me and goes, ‘God bless them, they’ve got problems too’,” he says.
“They have been through hell, they have been through warzones but… people felt a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, like, you know, people living on the streets, who are not getting looked after.“
Oscar later takes us to meet Donna – who sits outside a nearby shop with a sign that reads “JOB WANTED”.
She used to run her own cleaning business but after the death of her daughter in a car accident her life fell apart. Last November she also lost her partner.
Donna used to run a cleaning business but now sleeps in an underpass
For the past two and half years, Donna has been homeless. She purposefully hides herself away under a road bridge most nights so nobody can attack her.
“Where I am it’s so dark that nobody is going to be able to see me,” she says.
“Every time you think you are getting back up… there is something or someone who kicks you back down again.
“England is the place that has got a big sign for people that says ‘Freebies’, come in and we’ll get you in a hotel – that is the way it comes across to people.”
Donna says there’s always ‘something or someone who kicks you back down again’
“They (the government) want to sort their own problems out first and this is one of them,” says Donna, gesturing to the gloomy underpass she calls her bedroom.
It’s a problem they see most days at a community interest company called Adapt Resettlement further along Anlaby Road.
Every day, Danny and Lisa lead a small team dedicated to trying to get a roof over people’s heads.
“If you’ve got drug problems, mental health problems, even just living on the street, it’s a war every day for them,” says Danny.
“They can pitch up somewhere when a gang of kids will go and kick the tents, will kick their head in, it is a war daily for them.
Danny (left) says it’s incorrect to say all those caught up in the trouble are racist
“So, I get what they’re saying, that they (asylum seekers) are fleeing wars, but ours are fighting in a daily war,” adds Danny.
“Not everybody was in that riot for the same reason. There will have been people in that riot because they are homeless, they haven’t had help.
“But that doesn’t make them racist. They just wanted to get their point across.”
Danny has served time for violent offences in the past – and has also been homeless himself. He pins the blame for the riots squarely at the door of politicians.
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Aftermath of unrest and looting in Hull
“The government laid the bomb. And it’s just exploded,” he says.
“It is down to the government to sort it… The only way that they will do it, in my eyes, is that they give them equal opportunities.
“If they’re going to allow them in then so be it. But please look after ours as well. Otherwise, it’ll just continue, and it will.”
Read more:
Man apologises to mosque worshipper after Hull demo led to riot
Mum-of-six jailed for ‘truly disgraceful’ behaviour in riots
We joined Danny’s final home visit of the day, where we meet Carl.
‘There’s a lot of tension in the air, there is a lot of aggression,’ says Carl
He’s trying to stabilise his life, improve his health and eat better, but needs ongoing support.
He’s finally got a roof over his head thanks to the project.
“You can shout so loud can’t you and they don’t listen,” Carl tells us.
“It is just one of those things it boils over sometimes.
“There’s a lot of tension in the air, there is a lot of aggression and a lot of animosity.”
The police and courts have clamped down hard on those who were involved in the riots on 3 August. Earlier this month the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “There is no place for such appalling, senseless violence on our streets, and this government is determined to stamp out the scourge of serious violence wherever it is found.”
Meanwhile, the anger, animosity, and jealousy that helped fuel them still exists.
The roots of the riots run deep.
UK
Specialist teams and online investigators deployed across England and Wales to tackle ‘national emergency’ of violence against women and girls
Specialist investigation teams for rape and sexual offences are to be created across England and Wales as the Home Secretary declares violence against women and girls a “national emergency”.
Shabana Mahmood said the dedicated units will be in place across every force by 2029 as part of Labour’s violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy due to be launched later this week.
The use of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs), which had been trialled in several areas, will also be rolled out across England and Wales. They are designed to target abusers by imposing curfews, electronic tags and exclusion zones.
The orders cover all forms of domestic abuse, including economic abuse, coercive and controlling behaviour, stalking and ‘honour’-based abuse. Breaching the terms can carry a prison term of up to 5 years.
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Govt ‘thinking again’ on abuse strategy
Nearly £2m will also be spent funding a network of officers to target offenders operating within the online space.
Teams will use covert and intelligence techniques to tackle violence against women and girls via apps and websites.
A similar undercover network funded by the Home Office to examine child sexual abuse has arrested over 1,700 perpetrators.
Abuse is ‘national emergency’
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a statement: “This government has declared violence against women and girls a national emergency.
“For too long, these crimes have been considered a fact of life. That’s not good enough. We will halve it in a decade.
“Today we announce a range of measures to bear down on abusers, stopping them in their tracks. Rapists, sex offenders and abusers will have nowhere to hide.”
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Angiolini Inquiry: Recommendations are ‘not difficult’
The target to halve violence against women and girls in a decade is a Labour manifesto pledge.
The government said the measures build on existing policy, including facial recognition technology to identify offenders, improving protections for stalking victims, making strangulation a criminal offence and establishing domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms.
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Labour has ‘failed women’
But the Conservatives said Labour had “failed women” and “broken its promises” by delaying the publication of the violence against women and girls strategy.
Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, said that Labour “shrinks from uncomfortable truths, voting against tougher sentences and presiding over falling sex-offender convictions. At every turn, Labour has failed women.”
There have been no migrant arrivals in small boats crossing the Channel for 28 days, according to Home Office figures.
The last recorded arrivals were on 14 November, making it the longest uninterrupted run since autumn 2018 after no reported arrivals on Friday.
However, a number of Border Force vessels were active in the English Channel on Saturday morning, indicating that there may be arrivals today.
So far, 39,292 people have crossed to the UK aboard small boats this year – already more than any other year except 2022.
The record that year was set at 45,774 arrivals.
It comes as the government has stepped up efforts in recent months to deter people from risking their lives crossing the Channel – but measures are not expected to have an impact until next year.
Debris of a small boat used by people thought to be migrants to cross the Channel lays amongst the sand dunes in Gravelines, France. Pic: PA
December is normally one of the quietest for Channel crossings, with a combination of poor visibility, low temperatures, less daylight and stormy weather making the perilous journey more difficult.
The most arrivals recorded in the month of December is 3,254, in 2024.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy met with ministers from other European countries this week as discussions over possible reform to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) continue.
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France agrees to start intercepting small boats
The issue of small boat arrivals – a very small percentage of overall UK immigration – has become a salient issue in British politics in recent years.
Last month, French maritime police announced they would soon be able to intercept boats in the English Channel.
The King has shared in a television address that, thanks to early diagnosis, his cancer treatment can be reduced in the new year.
In a televised address, Charles said his “good news” was “thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to doctors’ orders”.
“This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years,” he added.
“Testimony that I hope may give encouragement to the 50% of us who will be diagnosed with the illness at some point in our lives.”
The King announced in February 2024 that he had been diagnosed with cancer and was beginning treatment.
The monarch postponed all public-facing engagements, but continued with his duties as head of state behind palace walls, conducting audiences and Privy Council meetings.
He returned to public duties in April last year and visited University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre in central London with the Queen and discussed his “shock” at being diagnosed when he spoke to a fellow cancer patient.
Sources suggested last December his treatment would continue in 2025 and was “moving in a positive direction”.
The King began returning to public duties in April last year. File pic: PA
The King has chosen not to reveal what kind of cancer he has been treated for. Palace sources have partly put that down to the fact that he doesn’t want one type of cancer to appear more significant or attract more attention than others.
In a statement after the speech aired, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “His Majesty has responded exceptionally well to treatment and his doctors advise that ongoing measures will now move into a precautionary phase.”
Sir Keir Starmer praised the video message as “a powerful message,” and said: “I know I speak for the entire country when I say how glad I am that his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year.
“Early cancer screening saves lives.”
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Watch: King Charles gives update on treatment
Early detection can give ‘the precious gift of hope’
His message on Friday was broadcast at 8pm in support of Stand Up To Cancer, a joint campaign by Cancer Research UK and Channel 4.
In an appeal to people to get screened for the disease early, the King said: “I know from my own experience that a cancer diagnosis can feel overwhelming.
“Yet I also know that early detection is the key that can transform treatment journeys, giving invaluable time to medical teams – and, to their patients, the precious gift of hope. These are gifts we can all help deliver.”
Charles noted that “at least nine million people in our country are not up to date with the cancer screenings available to them,” adding: “That is at least nine million opportunities for early diagnosis being missed.
“The statistics speak with stark clarity. To take just one example: When bowel cancer is caught at the earliest stage, around nine in ten people survive for at least five years.
“When diagnosed late, that falls to just one in ten. Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.”
Minor inconvenience of screening ‘a small price to pay’
The King acknowledged that people often avoid screening “because they imagine it may be frightening, embarrassing or uncomfortable”. But, he added: “If and when they do finally take up their invitation, they are glad they took part.
“A few moments of minor inconvenience are a small price to pay for the reassurance that comes for most people when they are either told either they don’t need further tests, or, for some, are given the chance to enable early detection, with the life-saving intervention that can follow.”
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Giving his “most heartfelt thanks” to doctors, nurses, researchers and charity workers, the King added: “As I have observed before, the darkest moments of illness can be illuminated by the greatest compassion. But compassion must be paired with action.
“This December, as we gather to reflect on the year past, I pray that we can each pledge, as part of our resolutions for the year ahead, to play our part in helping to catch cancer early.
“Your life – or the life of someone you love – may depend upon it.”
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