NEARLY a week of street riots across England have thrown up the first major crisis for Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he marks one month since his landslide election win.
Starmer enjoyed a smooth start after sweeping into Downing Street on July 5, taking to the world stage for several summits. But the tumult of the past week has punctured hopes of a prolonged honeymoon for the 61-year-old leader.
Disorder has hit more than a dozen towns and cities since a knife attack targeting children at a Taylor Swift themed dance event in Southport, northwest England, left three girls dead.
Stores have been looted, cars left ablaze and dozens of police injured in street battles.
Starmer and others have blamed far-right "thugs" for using the stabbing spree, allegedly carried out by a 17-year-old British-born suspect, to whip up anti-migrant and Islamophobic sentiment and violence.
On Monday, he chaired an emergency meeting of ministers and police chiefs in a bid to curb the unrest that threatens to derail the start of his five-year tenure.
The former head of the prosecution service is well placed to deal with the crisis given his experience in that role responding to riots in London in 2011, according to politics professor Steven Fielding.
"Law and order is a very strong suit for him," Fielding, of the University of Nottingham, told AFP.
He noted that the Labour leader was defining the unrest solely as "a law and order issue rather than an issue that has anything to do with immigration," on where Starmer is less sure-footed.
"He is yet to set out what Labour is going to do to reduce immigration, because he's made it very clear that that's what he wants to do," Fielding pointed out.
Instead, Starmer is saying "whatever you think, there is no excuse for all of these acts of violence".
Despite that, his approval rating has already taken a double-digit hit compared to early July, according to polling by Opinium published Sunday.
Meanwhile, he is facing criticism over his handling of the crisis from political rivals, including Conservative leadership contenders.
One questioned why he had waited until Monday to chair his first cross-government emergency meeting, while another claimed his Labour administration had been "slow off the mark" in its response.
Starmer can take some political comfort from the opposition Tories -- temporarily led by former prime minister Rishi Sunak -- also finding themselves squeezed on the riots issue on both their ideological flanks.
"They're the ones who've got the most trouble," argued Fielding.
"Because they want to be a law and order party, but they have got Nigel Farage and the Reform Party breathing down their necks."
Brexit activist Farage, whose anti-immigration Reform party won 14 percent of the vote on July 4 in one of the electoral successes for Britain's hard right, has condemned the violence.
But he has suggested it stems from legitimate greivances about immigration, rather than simply far-right thuggery, and warned worse could be seen on the streets.
He also accused Starmer of not having "an earthly clue" how to deal with the breakdown in law and order.
Many, like Fielding, characterise Farage as "making excuses for the people who are taking to the streets".
Britain's newspapers appeared to be unified in reserving judgment of Starmer's handling of the crisis.
The left-wing Guardian noted the Labour leader viewed that "he needed to explicitly condemn the far-right for being behind the violence -- making it clear that... causing fear, damage and disorder are never acceptable".
"But there may come a time soon when he needs to more strongly confront the anti-migrant rhetoric that lies behind the violence as well, whether it comes from protesters or politicians," it added.
The centre-right Times stressed the need for leaders to "express a healthy, optimistic patriotism to counteract the darker variety" espoused by the far-right.
"Conveying this message may be harder for the lawyerly Starmer than his well-rehearsed judicial crackdown. But it matters. In the coming months we will find out what sort of prime minister we have," the paper said.
* The writer is from AFP