Sir Keir Starmer made the announcement after a meeting with police chiefs today to discuss the scenes of violence that have taken place in London, Hartlepool and Southport, following the mass stabbings in the seaside town earlier this week.

At the meeting in Downing Street, the prime minister criticised the "marauding mobs" responsible for violence in Southport and elsewhere in the country in the wake of the attack, which killed three young girls.

Sir Keir said the Southport community was in "raw pain and grief". and wanted "answers".

He said those who had been involved in disorder across the locations in the UK had "no interest whatsoever in the raw pain of the community in Southport" and that he "supports the police" to get the "powers you need" to stop future riots.

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