'Let's Call This What It Is': Labour MP Nails What The Belfast Riots Are Really All About

A Labour MP nailed the real reasons for the riots which have taken place in Belfast over the past 48 hours.

Calvin Bailey said they were “organised, racialised attacks” on ethnic minorities in the city.

Families were burned out of their homes in what has been described as “a 21st century pogrom” following an alleged knife attack by a Sudanese man on Monday night.

Hadi Alodid, 30, appeared in court on Wednesday charged with attempted murder over the incident, in which victim Stephen Ogilvie lost an eye.

In a statement, Ogilvie’s family “peaceful protest is the only way forward”.

“We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including in our healthcare system and hospitality sector, and we depend on them to make our country work,” they said.

“We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility.”

Despite that, Belfast has seen two consecutive nights of violence, with police forced to use water cannon on Wednesday night to disperse rioters.

On the BBC’s Newsnight programme on Wednesday, Calvin Bailey said: “Let’s firstly call this what it is. That isn’t protest ... that is organised, racialised attacks, and to assume or to pretend that it is anything else just diminishes what is actively happening here.

“The fact that we allow this to be discussed in any other terms just diminishes what is happening and what is being done to us.”

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