King offers message of thanks to police as officers remain on alert for weekend

The King has offered his “heartfelt thanks” to the police for restoring order, after speaking to Sir Keir Starmer and police leaders following the week of unrest across the UK.

Charles and the Prime Minister held a phone call on Friday evening, Buckingham Palace said.

Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), and UK Gold Commander Ben Harrington, Chief Constable of Essex Police, held a separate joint call with the King.

“In these calls, His Majesty was updated on the current situation and expressed his heartfelt thanks to the police and emergency services for all they are doing to restore peace in those areas that have been affected by violent disorder,” a Palace spokesperson said.

The King is also said to have “shared how he had been greatly encouraged by the many examples of community spirit that had countered the aggression and criminality from a few with the compassion and resilience of the many”.

The spokesperson added: “It remains His Majesty’s hope that shared values of mutual respect and understanding will continue to strengthen and unite the nation.”

The King is understood to hope he may be able to express more direct support for communities impacted by riots, likely to be in the form of a visit.

However, this would only take place in circumstances where it did not place an extra burden on police resources.

The audiences with the King have taken place in a week where riots across the UK have slowly started to dissipate.

Sir Keir has reiterated that police should remain on “high alert” going into the weekend.

During a visit to the Metropolitan Police’s special operations room in Lambeth on Friday, the Prime Minister told broadcasters: “My message to the police and all of those that are charged with responding to disorder is maintain that high alert.

“I’m absolutely convinced that having the police officers in place these last few days, and the swift justice that has been dispensed in our courts have had a real impact.

“But we have to stay on high alert going into this weekend because we absolutely have to make sure that our communities are safe and secure and feel safe and secure.”

More and more people who have taken part in the disorder appeared in courtrooms across the UK on Friday.

Some 741 people have now been arrested, of which 302 have been charged, over rioting in parts of the country in the wake of the deaths of three young girls in Southport on July 29, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said.

Among those sentenced on Friday was a Facebook user who has become the first person jailed for stirring up racial hatred by using social media.

Jordan Parlour, 28, admitted posting on the social media platform between August 1 and August 5 urging others to target a hotel in Leeds, which at the time was housing more than 200 asylum seekers and refugees.

Parlour, of Seacroft, Leeds, was jailed for 20 months at Leeds Crown Court.

Elsewhere, 26-year-old Tyler Kay was sentenced at Northampton Crown Court to 38 months in prison after taking to social media to call for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set alight.

A former Labour councillor has meanwhile been remanded in custody after he was charged with encouraging violence while addressing a crowd during an anti-fascist protest in Walthamstow, east London, on Wednesday.

Ricky Jones, 57, entered no pleas at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, after a video emerged in which he appeared to call for far-right protesters’ throats to be “cut” during a demonstration the previous day.

Jones, who has been a councillor in Dartford, Kent, since 2019, has already been suspended by the Labour Party.

He is next due to appear at Inner London Crown Court on September 6.