Cameron: It was a mass outbreak of lawlessness

The London riots were not due to social or racial pressures, David Cameron has told US students.

On the last day of his three-day trip to America, the Prime Minister spoke to young people, academics and community leaders at New York University about the looting and violence last summer. “These were not riots based on social pressures or racial pressures,” he said.

“It actually was a mass outbreak of lawlessness where the police briefly lost control of the situation. It was really just a lot of people stealing property from shops and looting rather than there being any profound racial or social unrest sort of cause.” He argued that this was why it had flared up quickly and that there had not been much of an “after effect”.