Wes Streeting warns social media disinformation is an 'existential threat' as he condemns 'sickening' riots

The UK health secretary said he had been "shocked and sickened" by the "far-right violence" in towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland.

Speaking at Iain Dale’s All Talk show at the Edinburgh Fringe, he said: "People will be found, they will be brought to justice, and they will regret this for the rest of their lives."

Earlier, Mr Streeting had referenced a fake audio clip that was shared on social media before the general election, in which it sounded like he had used “the most foul language about dead Palestinian children”, adding: “I have no doubt that that really hurt me at the ballot box in the closing days of the campaign.”

Matthew Stadlen, who was standing in for Mr Dale due to illness, then asked about the spread of disinformation on social media and its impact on riots in England and Northern Ireland. He asked Mr Streeting how concerned he was about the spread of disinformation and misinformation.

The senior Labour minister said: "I think it's an existential threat to democracy, frankly. I think to live in a world where people can manufacture fake images and fake audio, it's dangerous, and we've got to wake up, not just as Britain, but as democracies collectively, to what is actually a threat to our democracy, to our national security, to trust in politics, which is already rock bottom anyway. It feels like we're now plumbing into new depths. 

"I've also just been shocked and sickened by the scenes on the streets of towns and cities in recent days, and the extent to which people who purport to be mainstream, whether in parliament or in the media, [have been] making excuses for actions that I think are absolutely unjustifiable."

He added: "By the way, don't tell me that people are just expressing legitimate grievances while they've got their hands full of stuff from [cosmetics shop] Lush."

Mr Streeting said he was "really proud" of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for calling the violence out for what it is. "This has been far-right agitation,” the health secretary said.

He added that "idiots" who had been pulled into the violence also needed to "face the full force of the law”.

"But we shouldn't be in any doubt about the insidious nature of what lies underneath all of this, who's pushing it, who's amplifying it, and who's - quite literally in some cases - fanning the flames,” Mr Streeting said. “This is far-right violence."

Elsewhere, he said the NHS was facing “objectively the worst crisis in its history”. He said there needed to be honesty about the challenge ahead.

Mr Streeting said he had to hold back tears as he walked up Downing Street after the general election. “It was all I could do, actually, not to burst into tears with the emotion of it all, and the relief that we’d won, and just the enormity of being able to do something that Labour hasn’t been able to do for 14 years,” he said.