Angela Rayner accuses Tory of ‘stirring up’ issues with ‘Allahu Akbar’ declare
Angela Rayner has blasted Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick for “stirring up” problems in the community as police forces brace for fresh unrest.
The Deputy Prime Minister took aim at Mr Jenrick after he said people should be immediately arrested for shouting “Allahu Akbar” in the streets. The phrase means “God is great” in Arabic and is used by millions of Muslims in prayer.
Mr Jenrick, who is positioning himself as a right-wing candidate for the Tory leadership, was condemned by Muslim politicians and community groups, who accused him of “nasty divisive rhetoric” and “textbook Islamophobia”.
Speaking on a visit to a hotel in Rotherham that was torched by rioters for housing asylum seekers, Ms Rayner said: “People like Robert Jenrick have been stirring up some of the problems that we’ve seen in our communities. Actually, what we want to see is communities coming together, and the vast majority of the public want to see that.
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“The Prime Minister is very clear that his number one priority is to keep people safe and to keep our streets safe, and that’s why we’ve deployed the police to deal with the minority of people who think it’s acceptable to throw missiles at police, to attack police and attack hotels and attack businesses that are just trying to go about their daily lives.
“The public here have been afraid and scared by those minorities who have been shouting racist abuse, shouting abuse and hurling missiles at police. There’s no excuse for that and the police will do their exceptional job that they’ve been doing over the last couple of days to protect the public.”
Mr Jenrick made the comment earlier today as he suggested that far-right riots are being policed more harshly than other protests – an idea often spread by conspiracy theorists. He told Sky News: “I have been very critical of the police in the past, particularly around the attitude of some police forces to the protests that we saw since October 7.
“I thought it was quite wrong that somebody could shout Allahu Akbar on the streets of London and not be immediately arrested, project genocidal chants on to Big Ben and not be immediately arrested. That attitude is wrong and I’ll always call out the police for it.”
Mr Jenrick later posted a video on X appearing to show demonstrators in Bolton shouting the phrase, with the caption: “‘Allahu Akbar’ is spoken peacefully and spiritually by millions of British Muslims in their daily lives.
“But the aggressive chanting below is intimidatory and threatening. And it’s an offence under Section 4 and 5 of the Public Order Act. Extremists routinely abuse common expressions for their own shameful ends.”
Ms Rayner said thugs attacking police and hotels housing asylum seekers don’t have “legitimate grievance” and no one should be defending mindless yobs for wreaking havoc on the streets,
She said: “Coming on the streets, throwing missiles at the police, attacking the police, attacking hotels like this one is not a legitimate grievance. Nobody should be condoning that.
“This is thuggery, this is violence, somebody could have got seriously injured over the last couple of days and it’s no excuse for that, and people should stay away from it.”
She warned would-be rioters that “if you throw missiles, if you attack people, if you incite hatred and violence, whether that’s online, or whether you’re offline, you will be met with the law because it is unlawful”.
Asked if she thought far-right groups were intent on destabilising Britain with the riots, Ms Rayner said: “I hope that the public and anyone who sees what is happening online, that they will know that online and offline criminality will be faced with the courts and with the law. I ask people to move away from that, to not get involved in that. We have seen what has happened on the streets, like here in Rotherham, that is not our British values.
“We all equally saw the British people come out and support the communities with the clean up operation, so hopefully people will see, detest what has happened and will stay away from this violence and thuggery that this small minority of people have engaged with.”
