Will the army be called in to deal with the far-right riots?

The recent riots have prompted demands that parliament be recalled and, rather more radically, that the army be called in to restore law and order on the streets.

- SEAN O'GRADY

Nigel Farage has led the calls to at least debate getting the military involved. In a statement, the leader of Reform UK argued: “That so many police officers have been injured trying to keep the peace is shocking, and we should not discount the use of the army if the situation were to deteriorate further.” Farage claims that this would “quell the riots”.

Would bringing the army in work?

Well, it seems likely that the average far-right extremist wearing a balaclava and an England flag would think twice about hurling a rock or a firework at a line of fully armed infantry, and a few warning shots in the air would disperse even the most belligerent of the “patriots”. Indeed, being confronted with tooled-up representatives of the very armed forces the “patriots” revere might confuse them so much that they wouldn’t know whose side they were supposed to be on, though this hasn’t previously mattered. They certainly couldn’t attack the troops for “two-tier” soldiering.

Does Farage want martial law to be declared?