Young Muslim men rampaging through Birmingham should have offered the government a convenient chance to quash the accusations that the Prime Minister is “Two Tier Keir”.

Fuelled by rumours that the far right were organising a protest in the area, the demonstration soon took on a dark life of its own. Young men in balaclavas harassed journalists, driving Sky News’ “communities correspondent” off the air, with an attempt even being made to slash the wheels of the Sky van. LBC’s Fraser Knight was chased out of the area. Mr Knight explained that “6 men ran after us down a road with what looked like a weapon”, and that “cars followed us”. “There wasn’t a safe place for us to go for miles,” he says. 

Meanwhile, a white man was attacked outside a pub by a mob of masked men, and attempts were made to stop random drivers. This violence and intimidation, of course, mirrors that which has been perpetrated in riots elsewhere.

But there is a difference. Where were the police in Birmingham? We have seen riot police wielding dogs and batons against the far right, and Keir Starmer was promising that rioters would face the “full force of the law”. In Birmingham, though, the police appear to have acted with a light touch. One officer was recorded apparently dismissing the violence as a “small scuffle”.

Local MP Jess Phillips is famed for her outspoken and combative manner, so one might have expected swift condemnation. (Indeed, given that Phillips was recently bragging about how “unflappable” she is around criminals, it’s a shame she wasn’t there to resolve things.)

Actually, Phillips’ first public response to the disorder was to quote tweet a video of a group of masked men and write:  

To be clear all day rumours have been spread that a far right group were coming and it was done entirely to get Muslim people out on the street to drive this content. It is misinformation being spread to create trouble.

Okay, I can believe it. But surely this was time to tell them to disperse and go home? Phillips then quote tweeted Richard Tice MP, who had published a video of the Sky News team being intimidated. “These people came to this location because it has been spread that racists were coming to attack them,” she wrote: 

This misinformation was spread entirely to create this content. Don’t spread it MR Tice!

Sure, again, we get it. The gathering was fuelled by misinformation. But when a group of journalists — with a female correspondent, no less — is being intimidated by masked men flashing trigger fingers at the camera, it has clearly evolved into something more hooliganistic. These men were not confronting a skinhead in a “Blood and Honour” t-shirt. They were confronting a woman trying to do her job.

Finally, in the face of criticism, Phillips blandly tweeted that “anyone committing criminality should face the law”. “But it’s important that the facts of why people are congregating[sic],” she wrote. 

That isn’t untrue. I’m sure that it began with young men feeling concerned that their streets would be attacked. It would be purblind not to understand people being on edge. But I’m sure the demonstrations that began in Southport were fuelled by people being enraged by violent crime and indifferent politicians. For an MP to make that point while remaining mute on how they had developed into outbreaks of pogrom-like aggression would be career-ending. 

What consequences will Mrs Phillips, who is not just MP for Birmingham Yardley but Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls — oh, the irony — end up facing? People with long memories might recall when she dismissed the rash of sexual assaults by migrants in Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015-2016 as being akin to women being “heckled” on Broad Street in Birmingham “every week”. Are these the words of a politician who will pursue order and justice without fear or favour?

As one of the more disgraceful periods in modern British history grinds on, we can hope that violence does not continue to escalate and that the peace can be achieved. But if the government encourages the justifiable perception of partiality, the outlook seems bleak.