Home Secretary announces plans to tackle gang violence

The Home Secretary also told the emergency debate in the Commons that powers to disrupt mobile messaging services would also be discussed. Among other proposals announced by the Prime Minister earlier in the day were new powers to allow police officers to remove face coverings in situations “where crime is being committed”. The move is in response to the fact that many rioters had been masked to avoid being identified.

Mrs May was speaking after several days of riots and civil disorder in towns and cities around England forced senior Government members including the Prime Minister to cut short their holidays to address the issue.

Mrs May said: “The last five days have been a dark time for everybody who cares about their community and their country. Violence, arson and looting in several of our towns and cities, often openly in front of television cameras, has destroyed homes, ruined livelihoods and taken lives.

“As long as we wish to call ourselves a civilised society, such disorder has no place in Britain.”

Police tactics not “sufficiently robust”

Mrs May had strong words for the way in which police tackled the violence. She said: “It is clear to me that the original police tactics were insufficient. After criticism of previous public order operations for excessive force, some officers appeared reluctant to be sufficiently robust in breaking up groups.

“Many arrests were made. But in some situations officers contained suspects in a specified area, free to commit criminal damage and steal, instead of intervening and making arrests.

But she maintained that her criticism was not levelled at police officers:”I want to make clear to the House that in making these points I am not criticising the police themselves, because too often the police are damned if they do and damned if they don’t and nowhere is this truer than public-order policing.

“I want to be clear: as long as officers act within reason and the law themselves, this Home Secretary will never damn the police if they do.”

But Mrs May’s Labour opposite Yvette Cooper was quick to blame Government cuts for the police’s response: “The 16,000 police on the streets of London made a big difference last night in restoring calm.

“It is shameful that it has taken these appalling events to force Boris Johnson to realise people are concerned about police cuts, as he has already cut 900 police officers from the Met in the last year and the Mayor’s own plans mean 1,800 officers are expected to go in total over the next few years.

“The police, communities and campaigners have been warning that these cuts were unsustainable for many months. It should not take awful criminal violence on the scale we have seen for those warning voices to be heard.

“People in London and across the country need reassurance that the police have the resources and officers they need to keep the streets safe and maintain law and order. Now is not the time for 20 per cent budget cuts that make it harder not easier for the police to do their jobs.”

FactCheck checks out London mayor Boris Johnson's claims on police numbers