UK riots: Man admits looting Lush shop as girl, 13, pleads guilty to threatening unlawful violence

More investment in frontline youth work could help keep young people away from violence and counter misinformation, a sector leader has said as children as young as 12 were convicted over the summer riots.

Analysis by the PA news agency shows at least 50 youths under the age of 18 have been charged in connection with the nationwide disorder.

On Monday, two 12-year-old boys were convicted on charges of violent disorder, while Tuesday saw a 13-year-old girl plead guilty to the same charge.

Kayleigh Wainwright, from leading youth work charity UK Youth, said it is “really sad” to see children “caught up in this”, whether perpetrators, victims or witnesses to scenes of unrest.

The director of youth sector innovation, whose career working with young people has spanned two decades, said those who committed crimes must take responsibility but voiced concern that children can be “more vulnerable”.

She told PA: “Of course those people, young or old, when they’re involved (in crime) need to take responsibility for that.

“But I think we see young people are more vulnerable when it comes to being manipulated with information, adults asking them to do things, being pushed to the front of these types of activities, and because they’re younger, maybe fitter, maybe more impressionable.

“In my career, I’ve never seen riots on this scale but it’s not unusual that young people would be involved in the ways I’ve said.”

Labour MP Clive Lewis is facing calls for his suspension over a tweet appearing to suggest Israel is to blame for the far-right riots that swept the UK last week.

The MP for Norwich South argued that the “inhumanity” shown towards Palestinians in Gaza has led to rising Islamophobia in the UK, causing campaigners to call for his suspension.

Labour Against Antisemitism has accused Mr Lewis of being highly irresponsible and has urged Sir Keir Starmer to expell him from the party. However, it is understood that no disciplinary action will be taken against the MP by party whips.

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A British businesswoman accused of being the first person to share false information about the Southport killings of three girls has said the “mistake” has “destroyed” her.

Bernadette Spofforth is alleged to have fired off a tweet on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, wrongly claiming the stabbing suspect was an asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat hours after the three girls were killed.

The 55-year-old also shared an incorrect name for the boy accused of perpetrating attacks at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport, in which three people died.

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A man who looted a cosmetics store, a phone shop, a shoe outlet and damaged cars during riots in Hull while wearing a shirt emblazoned with the England flag has pleaded guilty in court.

Honey also too part in an attack on a BMW carrying three Romanian men, targeted a garage leaving nine vehicles damaged, and pushed bins at police lines during the violence.

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Children as young as nine are being radicalised by their far-right relatives, a reformed neo-Nazi has warned.

Nigel Bromage, who was involved in far-right groups for two decades but now runs a deradicalisation charity, told The Independent the youngest person that his organisation has supported was a boy who was using neo-Nazi references after being radicalised by his older brother.

Discussing the recent explosion of violence, he warned the far right is radicalising lay people to use as “pawns” to perpetrate violence and destruction.

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Shadow minister Tom Tugendhat has accused Sir Keir Starmer of a “failure of leadership” in his handling of the disorder that swept through parts of Britain while branding Nigel Farage’s intervention “deeply irresponsible and dangerous”.

The Tory leadership hopeful claimed the Prime Minister “fell short” in the first test of his premiership, before also hitting out at the policing response in the wake of the unrest, suggesting officers had not acted “without fear or favour” during some counter-demonstrations.

In a far-ranging speech in Westminster on Tuesday, the shadow security minister suggested Sir Keir should have gone further, for example by holding daily Cobra meetings from the start, but instead chose to “run as if he was still in opposition”.

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Labour minister Jess Phillips labelled the platform “a place of misery”, while Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram, said it is time for politicians to consider leaving the platform.

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A man has been sentenced to 10 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to racially abusing a bus driver and violently attacking a betting shop.

The first incident saw Michael Mongan, 39, of Castle Road, Ealing, west London, attack a Ladbrokes branch in Northolt on July 27.

He repeatedly hit windows with a large stick and racially abused staff while under the influence of alcohol. A member of the public had to restrain him before he was arrested by police.

While in custody, Mongan racially abused a police officer who was driving a van.

Mongan pleaded guilty to two counts of racially aggravated behaviour, one charge of criminal damage and one count of causing damage to a police vehicle.

The second incident occurred on August 7, while he was on bail for the previous offences, after a bus driver refused to let him board as he did not have the money to pay for his journey.

Mongan spat at the bus driver’s cab a number of times while shouting Islamophobic abuse and other threats.