Number 10 will be breathing a huge sigh of relief this morning as the nation wakes up not to images of burned down buildings and looted shops, but community solidarity and peaceful protest.
It appears that Sir Keir Starmer’s plan has worked.
Swift arrests, speedy prosecutions, and the threat of being charged with terrorism offences.
Such punishment clearly had a deterrent effect on the rioters, alongside the large groups of counter-protesters across the country that far-right protesters and rioters would have been confronted with.
The prime minister’s experience as director of public prosecutions during the 2011 London riots has also undoubtedly been an invaluable asset to the government’s handling of the violent disorder.
But the government is clear that the country is not out of the woods yet.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson today told Sky News: “There is now further intelligence of events during the next few days, and we need to see what happens there.”
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Clearly, Sir Keir won’t want to brand this a victory over “far-right thuggery” prematurely.
But if the UK’s streets remain peaceful and justice is seen to be done with more and more faces and names of criminal rioters plastered across our screens and newspapers, the prime minister may have just proved his worth to the British public.
This violence and disorder has been his first major test since becoming prime minister a month ago, and from what we saw – or didn’t see – last night, he appears to have passed with flying colours.
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However, once the dust settles it feels inevitable that opposition MPs will begin to pick holes not only in Labour’s response to the criminality but in the causes and drivers for such violent unrest from sections of the British public.
For now, Tory leadership candidates are remaining generally supportive of the government, although Robert Jenrick’s accusations of unequal and selective treatment by Sir Keir of far-right rioters compared to “sectarian gangs” looks to be just the beginning of the political attacks to come.
As the Tory leadership race tightens and the all-important votes draw nearer, the gloves may slip off as candidates vie for Conservative MPs’ and members’ approval.
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