POLITICIANS are joining forces to unite the country in the hope of avoiding more riots like those seen last summer.
Former Home Secretary Sir Sajid Javid says growing community tensions have been ignored by politicians for too long.
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He said: “Successive governments have treated community and cohesion as second-tier issues — responding only when tensions spill over and too often ignoring the root causes.”
Sir Sajid is co-chairman — with ex-Labour MP Jon Cruddas — of the cross-party Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion.
Sir Keir Starmer has warned of mounting “cracks in our foundation”, while Nigel Farage has warned of civil unrest because of anger over immigration.
The taskforce was set up following last summer’s riots in Southport, Sunderland and across the UK and meets for the first time today.
It brings together 21 experts from politics, business, media and religion, including Reform-supporting commentator Tim Montgomerie, founder of Cobra beer Lord Bilimoria and former counter-extremism czar Dame Sara Khan.
Brendan Cox of Together, which assembled the commission, said: “Declining community connection and growing division is an existential threat to democracy.
“It won’t be solved by more of the same – or by a single party or government.
“We will only see progress if we can forge both a shared vision of where we are going, and an effective roadmap of how to get there.
“That’s not an easy thing to do – especially not in the current climate – but it’s an extraordinary group of people who have committed to helping try.”
