A FORMER police superintendent turned Bracknell councillor has appeared on a national news podcast to talk about the recent outbreak of violence seen nationally.

Councillor Roy Bailey was a guest on Bloomberg's UK Politics podcast to speak about the week of unrest across the country. As well as working as a Labour councillor for Bracknell Forest, Mr Bailey is a former police superintendent and criminal justice researcher.

Violence broke out across the UK last week following the fatal stabbings of three young girls at a dance class in Southport, Merseyside. Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old British citizen born in Cardiff, was arrested at the scene and subsequently charged.

Misinformation circulating on social media about his immigration status led to violent riots across the nation, with many targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers.

Cllr Bailey said the unrest was ‘like a wildfire that very rapidly got out of hand’, which had been ‘brought about by the populist right’.

He said: “Fortunately I am in Bracknell, and I see very little of that. Reform had a sizeable chunk of the vote here in the last election, although Labour did win here. So, there’s a sizeable group of people that support Reform’s aims and objectives.”

He continued that it ‘didn’t make them bad people’, but it meant politicians must work ‘doubly as hard to impress upon them that the national interest are their interests’.

Podcast hosts Stephen Carrol and Caroline Heppker asked him what he considered the root cause of the violence to be. Cllr Bailey said: “This has been going on for months – if not years – and the populist lies have been growing strength. Social media also has a major part to play in all of this.”

He said the ‘toxicity’ in some posts is ‘deliberate’ and ‘designed to cause unrest’.

The ex-superintendent praised the handling of the police: “I think they’re managing it really well, but there will be a toll.

“Law and order have to be maintained, that’s the most important priority. Thereafter we have to talk, we have to discuss, we have to understand.”

Cllr Bailey, who is also the executive member for children and young people, said that large-scale changes need to take place, such as through education.

He added that he hoped more would be done to address the use of social media, including a ‘really forensic attack’ on people that have been ‘sponsoring’ the protests.