KATE HOEY: Of course it's wrong to start a riot. But the political class ignore justified fears over mass immigration at their peril

Published: 00:08, 11 June 2026 | Updated: 00:18, 11 June 2026 Of course it was wrong. Homes, buses and cars set on fire, terrified families fleeing, streets transformed into no-go zones, businesses trashed by marauding gangs.  In East Belfast, a group of masked men, clad in black, stormed a house where an ethnic-minority family – including children – were living, yelling anti-immigration slogans.  Now more 'unrest' is feared – a long, hot summer of violence. So let me be unequivocal: civilised societies cannot, must not, tolerate mob rule.  Yet condemning this week's scenes in Belfast is not the same as condemning the anger behind them. And this is a lesson that politicians need to learn – fast.  In election after election, British voters have made their wish to reduce mass migration abundantly clear. The politicians have repeatedly promised that they would do so – and then reneged on those vows.  The anger has been growing, I suspect, because many people increasingly feel they will never be able to achieve the results they want at the ballot box – an exceptionally dangerous and volatile development.  Add to this the growing litany of atrocities committed by migrants or the descendants of migrants, and the anger risks turning to rage.  Indeed, it has already done so. We saw it just last week, of course, when the appalling facts surrounding the death of Henry Nowak emerged: a police force who ignored the teenager's claims that he had been stabbed, instead hearing only his Sikh attacker's false accusation of 'racism'.  Pictured: the scene in Newtownabbey, Belfast, on Wednesday night following the alleged attack on a man in the city  Demonstrators march along Portswood Road in Southampton during an Enough is Enough protest on Tuesday  Now, of course, public fury is surging again following the monstrous barbarity inflicted on a defenceless, vulnerable man in Belfast.  Ministers may be right to call for 'calm' for the umpteenth time – but that does not go far enough.  They actually need to deal with these problems and begin to address voters' concerns directly. Instead, worryingly, the tendency increasingly seems to be for our leaders to exploit public unrest – unacceptable though it undoubtedly is – by painting any concern about the ill effects of mass migration as 'racist' or 'far-Right'. This will no longer hold. The Belfast attack, harrowing footage of which leaked online, not only horrified the world, it prompted an outpouring of legitimate questions – chiefly why it happened and whether it could have been prevented. Yet those who ask these questions can often find themselves caricatured as extremists. Take the absurd reaction that met Unionist MP Jim Allister in the Commons this week when, in words that millions of British people would surely have agreed with, he asked: 'What will be done to stop the importation of an alien culture that thinks it's appropriate to try and behead someone?' Rather than responding to a question he understood perfectly, Labour minister Hilary Benn replied: 'I'm sorry the Honourable Gentleman used the term 'alien culture', because what exactly is he referring to?' Likewise, Nigel Farage was heavily criticised by the liberal commentariat last week after saying he felt 'pure cold rage' following the Henry Nowak tragedy.   A bus on fire in Belfast on Tuesday night as tensions grew in Belfast. Now more 'unrest' is feared – a long, hot summer of violence Henry Nowak (pictured) was arrested on a Southampton street last December after being attacked. The police bodycam footage of his arrest sparked outrage across the country To its shame, the BBC misquoted him – deliberately or otherwise – as having called for 'white cold rage', adding a highly inflammatory racial element. (The Corporation subsequently apologised.) All this sends a clear message to voters – that certain subjects may be discussed only within very narrow limits. Step outside them and you will be labelled extremist, reactionary or worse. The problem with this approach is that it does not make the public's concerns magically disappear. It merely drives the frustration deeper. That frustration is growing not only in the United Kingdom but also in the Republic of Ireland. Indeed, concerns about soaring immigration are becoming in some places a unifying issue between Protestants and Catholics, visible in opinion polls, election results and everyday conversations. And little wonder. The island of Ireland is feeling the effects of the mass-migration crisis acutely. Figures from last year suggest that out of the UK's more than 300 local authorities, Belfast is numbered in the top 20 for the highest number of asylum seekers. In this context, the porous border between the North and the Republic surely needs fresh attention. No one would advocate a return to the checks, fences and barbed wire of the past. Those of us who lived through the Troubles would never wish to see a return to those deadly divisions. Police officers inspect the area near the scene of a stabbing outside apartments in the Kinnaird Avenue area of north Belfast on Tuesday However, it should not be controversial to ask how movement across the border should be monitored and enforced. Earlier this year, this newspaper's feature writer Fred Kelly showed how illegal migrants were exploiting the unattended border by making the journey from Dublin to Belfast by bus to claim asylum on UK soil. The Sudanese migrant suspected of this week's Belfast attack is believed to have made that very journey. The Irish government has recently been stopping buses coming into the Republic: I have been on a bus where it happened, and watched as two officers boarded and asked everyone for ID. Not once have I seen this happen in reverse. Last October, I questioned David Hanson, the former minister of state for security, counterterrorism, crime and policing, to ask what steps the Government would take to prevent illegal migrants who arrive in the Republic of Ireland from travelling into Northern Ireland, and then to the British mainland. His response was pathetically woolly. Perhaps, the Government might want to look again at my question. What happened in Belfast this week must be a wake-up call. Labour ministers have to accept that they can no longer refuse to engage with voters' concerns. They cannot continue to place hundreds of illegal migrants in communities that were never consulted on the matter. They must stop the boats once and for all: by deploying the Navy in the Channel, and perhaps by bringing back the Tories' Rwanda scheme, which they ditched on day one – and which seemed to be having a deterrent effect (not least in Ireland, where migrants spoke of travelling to the Republic to escape the risk of being sent to the African nation). A few people are willing to break the law to protest against immigration. The vast majority, thank goodness, never will. But millions nevertheless share their concerns.  Politicians need to recognise that fact – or ignore it at their peril. Baroness Hoey was a Labour MP for 30 years and now sits as an independent Member of the House of Lords. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? 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