THE shocking loss of young lives in Southport will have resonated with those who remember Dunblane’s horror in 1996.

Devastated families mourned; the people of Scotland grieved; 750,000 signed the Snowdrop petition, one of the UK’s largest-ever single-issue campaigns. UK legislation to control gun ownership followed.

Far-right extremists denied the Southport community privacy, dignity and respect following their trauma. Instead, hate-fuelled racists exploited unspeakable tragedy to advance their poisonous anti-migrant agenda.

Dangerous disinformation spread via internet and social media, unleashing a spiral of violence. East Lothian residents, shocked by rioting, looting and assaults on the police, may demand explanations of ugly scenes, featuring worryingly high numbers of masked teenagers and children among the perpetrators.

MI5 chief Ken McCallum anticipated this exact scenario in his 2021 ‘threat update’. Asserting that no threat can fundamentally undermine our way of life, but can cause untold grief and harm, he hailed as “one of the finest public policy achievements” of contemporary Britain the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement’s guarantee of holding multiple identities – British, Irish, Northern Irish.

This underpins a more inclusive, cohesive society, different communities sharing equally in its future. He identified the UK threat posed by “extreme right-wing terrorism [...which] is here to stay, as a substantial additional risk”. Characteristics include “a high prevalence of teenagers, including young teenagers ...And always, the online environment – with thousands exchanging hate-filled rhetoric or claiming violent intentions to each other in extremist echo chambers”.

This analysis isn’t a state secret, yet Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described recent riots as "thuggery".

Hostile crowds shouting "get them out" outside migrant hotels is beyond "thuggery". Labour hid its head in the sand over Brexit and Gaza; it won a majority. Now it must call out Islamophobia, anti-migrant rhetoric and the warped agenda of the far right.

It must own up to Brexit’s consequences, using its parliamentary majority to challenge the racist agenda pursued by Nigel Farage since 2010; Theresa May’s 2012 ambition for "a really hostile environment for migrants"; and the disastrous myopia towards the far right of the Suella Braverman faction.

Prior to Scotland’s 2014 referendum, Oxford University’s Migration Observatory examined the UK’s differing migration experiences. More than 90 per cent of non-UK-born people living in the UK were in England, over 50 per cent concentrated in London and the south-east. Scotland had under 5 per cent. In July this year just 3,039 people in Lothian East voted for Farage’s Reform UK party. Scotland requires full powers to implement enlightened migration policies to reflect who we are as a country – outward-looking, tolerant, focused on our future, not living in the past.