Tory Peer Craig Mackinlay Claims Nationwide Riots Stem from Discontent with Country’s State, Not Southport Killings
London, UK – Tory peer Craig Mackinlay has sparked controversy after suggesting that the recent riots across the UK were motivated by widespread dissatisfaction with the state of the country, rather than solely by the tragic killings of three young girls in Southport.
In an interview with GB News, Mackinlay, who was recently nominated for a peerage by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, argued that the violent disorder following the Southport stabbings was not limited to far-Right extremists. Instead, he claimed that "normal people" had joined the protests to express their frustration with broader social and economic issues.
“If the far-Right are that good at organizing things, then they’re far better at organizing things than any political party or government that I know in the UK,” Mackinlay remarked. “There’s always going to be some nutters, and they should be dealt with very robustly... But if you look at some of these rallies, there are lots of couples [at] these rallies that you’d expect to go and see in The Dog and Duck on a Friday afternoon. These are normal people.”
The riots were reportedly sparked by far-Right activists in Southport, just a day after the stabbings of three girls aged six, seven, and nine. The violence escalated when a mosque was targeted by a mob, fueled by false online rumors that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a boat the previous year.
Mackinlay, who lost his limbs to sepsis last year, suggested that the unrest had been fueled by broader discontent rather than the Southport killings alone. “This is almost one of those moments where I think a lot of people have said, forget what Southport was actually all about. It actually made people rather annoyed about the state of Britain today,” he commented.
The former MP, who now chairs the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, also criticized the government’s record on migration and welfare, admitting that he could not defend the Conservatives’ handling of these issues. He expressed concerns over the impact of both legal and illegal migration on the country’s worklessness crisis, stating, “We’ve got 9.4 million people in this country who are of working age, who are economically inactive. Surely, we’ve got a pool of workers available domestically to actually fill the jobs that are available.”
Mackinlay’s comments have sparked a debate over the underlying causes of the recent unrest, with some accusing him of downplaying the role of far-Right extremism in the violence. His continued leadership of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, which challenges the government’s approach to green policies, also signals his ongoing influence within Conservative circles despite his controversial views.
As the country grapples with the aftermath of the riots, Mackinlay’s remarks have added fuel to the ongoing discussion about the state of the nation and the challenges facing the UK in the years ahead.