The Thetford mob is coming for Burnham

The mobs had been inflamed by online reports giving the addresses of HMOs (homes in multiple occupation, a term for homes subdivided to house three or more people) licensed for use by asylum seekers – an alternative to the asylum hotels that had previously sparked violent protests. Some of those present shouted the message of the racist Great Replacement conspiracy theory. “They don’t want the white man any more,” one said, according to the Guardian. “They want to swap us.”

This comes just weeks after families were burned out of their homes in Belfast by violent mobs, but this might well be the first you are hearing of it: the Thetford riots barely made national headlines. One exception came from the Daily Express, which sent a reporter to a scene of violence fuelled by online anti-refugee rhetoric. 

Having seen this first-hand, that reporter decided the most important thing he had seen was a discarded box of supplies near a bin. “The jaw-dropping list of everything asylum seekers in Thetford were ‘given for free’”.

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That “jaw-dropping” list included a single plate, knife, fork and spoon; one mug and one glass; two small pans; basic bedding and towels. The supplier was a company which provides institutional “economy” products to hospitals and prisons – the bare essentials to live and to cook.

At a time when violent rioters were still in the street, a supposedly mainstream newspaper decided to focus not on the thugs attacking police, but instead to frame the supply of cheap essentials as luxury – surely knowing it was risking fanning the flames in the name of clicks. 

When the Express was bought by Reach Plc – the same company that publishes the Mirror – its first editor under new ownership promised that its anti-migrant coverage would stop. Clearly, times have changed.

The anti-asylum mob in Thetford targeted HMOs, but they were also protesting against plans to house asylum seekers on a military base a few miles outside of the town. Both of these measures are part of steps taken by the Home Office to reduce the use of hotel accommodation for asylum seekers – supposedly to counter public anger. 

The Labour government, in trying to appease the mob, inflamed it instead. That does not appear to have stopped it trying exactly that tactic, however.

Andy Burnham spent the first week of August on holiday, but still found time to weigh in via social media on issues including teacake versus barms, or whether Westminster Council should ban “vertical drinking” – abolishing standing with a pint and instead requiring people to order from their table.

He did not feel the need to weigh in on the issue of angry mobs hounding asylum seekers out of their homes, assaulting police officers in the process. Instead, ministers were sent out to denounce the violence – as Wes Streeting did on Friday.

Streeting dutifully did just that, but only after tying himself in knots to stress that “there are people who have legitimate concerns” about immigration and “I don’t think we should conflate the two”. 

Even with violent mobs in the street, the government – technically a brand-new government – feels the need to triangulate on immigration in a way it doesn’t on any other issue. The violence this week was conducted by a small mob that rarely, if ever, numbered over 100 people.

When minority elements of a large, peaceful protest clash with police, politicians do not spend time stressing how legitimate the concerns of the wider protest are. They condemn the violence, and the public applauds them for it. But when a violent mob is motivated to attack asylum seekers, clear and emphatic denunciations are nowhere to be found.

Pundits spend far too much time talking about the concept of the Overton Window – a term for the range of issues which are regarded as acceptable in public discourse. But here its effect is obvious: Elon Musk’s X is filled every day with outright calls for racial purges, as Musk himself appears to call for violence against “traitors” who don’t sign up to his ethnonationalist vision of Britain, a country in which he has never lived.

Restore and Reform now openly call for mass deportations, while the Conservative Party flirts with the idea too. Mainstream newspapers occasionally denounce the worst racist excesses of the far right, but have either ignored pogroms in the UK or else published actively inflammatory stories during them. 

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There are no firewalls left on the right of British politics: overt racism is often tolerated, if not actively cheered on. Labour finds itself in government, and yet had almost nothing to say about any of this.

Under Keir Starmer, it tried to act tough enough on immigration to mollify those who might riot – an approach that tanked its popularity while doing nothing to stop the steady radicalisation of British politics. Andy Burnham’s premiership will sink if it can’t find a different approach. 

Happily for Burnham, this should not be hard: the British public hate violence, hate riots, and loathe attacks on police officers. Most people are not on the side of the rioters – or wouldn’t be, if they heard the details. It should not be politically difficult to condemn what is happening in Thetford, or to do so loudly and repeatedly.

Burnham may not want immigration, asylum or the racial cohesion of Britain to be the central issues of his premiership – but prime ministers rarely have the luxury of choice. This is his fight, whether or not he bothers to show up for it.