London riots the actions of a "small minority" - Newbury MP

Thames Valley riot squad officers sent to assist as MP for Newbury criticises "small minority" causing trouble

THE MP for Newbury Richard Benyon has condemned "a small minority of troublemakers" for the scenes of violence spreading across London.

As a third night of looting and arson erupted across north, south, west and east London as well as other major cities across the UK last night (Monday), Mr Benyon said he felt the police had the situation under control.

Of the London violence, Mr Benyon said: “It is a very small minority of people causing trouble, they are doing serious damage to communities and family businesses,” he said.

“There are eight or nine million people living peacefully, that is the sad thing about it.”

He said the rioting was not fuelled by anger at the Government.

“There is absolutely no societal issue here, people linking this to anything deeper are wrong, this is straightforward criminal behaviour,” he said.

“Any excuse about this being linked to anything economically is absurd."

Despite a recent announcement that tens of thousands of police officers, including hundreds of front-line officers in Thames Valley, would be axed as part of Government budget cuts, Mr Benyon said he did not believe it would impact on the ability of the police to deal with incidents such as this.

“The police are being stretched, information seems to be being passed around on things like Twitter and troublemakers are going to where the police are not. It is making things very difficult.

Prime Minister David Cameron has cut short a holiday to fly back to the UK to chair an emergency Cobra meeting, but Mr Benyon said criticism of Mr Cameron's decision not to return home earlier was unwarranted.

“I am very happy to see David Cameron chair the Cobra meeting today, I think that was the right thing to do at this time,” he said.

He also said he did not believe it was right to send in the army to deal with the trouble.

“We are not that kind of country, the police are able to cope and they will do,” he said.

Riot squad officers from Thames Valley Police (TVP) have been seconded to London to help out with violence spreading across parts of the capital.

A spokesman for the force, Chris Kearney, confirmed that mass-trained officers had been called up by the Metropolitan police on Saturday, the same day a crowd of people gathered outside Tottenham police station in reaction to the shooting of Mark Duggan.

“We sent one PSU (Police Support Unit) down on Saturday, one on Sunday, two yesterday (Monday) and two more will be going down today.”

He said Scotland Yard had asked the force not to reveal how many officers were being sent down however it is thought that an unprecedented number of police are patrolling North, South, East and West London, with 6,000 on the streets last night.

As bottles were thrown at the police cars close to the station on Saturday, police and protesters squared up and the violence began to escalate.

Other areas of London began to see outbreaks of looting and rioting on Sunday and Monday as residential areas as well as whole streets of shops were set ablaze and destroyed.

SPORT has also been affected and Reading's Carling Cup tie at Charlton on Tuesday night was postponed. It will now be played on Tuesday, August 23.

Have you been affected by the riots in any way? Email mark.taylor@newburynews.co.uk or telephone 01635 564532.