'We need integration to stop riots like this happening again'

Twenty five years ago, some of the worst race rioting in a generation broke out in Greater Manchester.

On 26 May 2001, tensions between white and Asian young people in Oldham erupted in three days of violence, which later spread to Burnley and crossed the Pennines to Bradford.

Prof Ted Cantle was commissioned by the then Home Secretary David Blunkett to lead a review into what caused the violence in the aftermath.

Cantle said while some of the latent racism that existed in 2001 had disappeared, "the parallel lives that I described 25 years ago definitely still exist".

"They've got a little bit better in one or two places and a little bit worse in others," he said.

In his report, Cantle highlighted deep-rooted segregation between ethnic groups leading what he described as "parallel lives" where those from different backgrounds did not mix.

He advised the government and councils at the time to ensure schools were less segregated.

He also called for twinning between schools from different communities, and for admissions policies which would avoid more than 75 % of pupil intake being from any one culture or ethnic background.

"There's some very good school-linking projects which introduce pupils of one faith or ethnicity to another," Cantle said about the progress made so far.

"But unfortunately schools have still remained pretty much divided and what we need most of all in my view is an integration strategy."

He said he also still backed calls for people coming to the UK to swear an oath of allegiance.

"I think that citizenship really is the wrong way round at the moment," he said.

"People come to this country but probably won't become a citizen for five or six years after they arrive because of the process that we have.

"Really what we need to do is to get people interested in the British way of life, the core values, the fundamental values, freedom of speech, equality, all of the sorts of key issues that we want people to have and to get them introduced and inculcated at a very early stage."

During an interview to mark a quarter of a century on since the violence, Cantle said he was frustrated that he was still calling for the same changes.

"Over the years, some governments have increased the amount of cohesion work, only to be forgotten a few years later," he said.

More recently, misinformation online following the Southport attack where three schoolgirls were murdered, led to six days of violence.

Cantle said this was why we needed to make sure this issue was taken "much more seriously".

"I think that is obviously in doubt, given what we've seen and particularly the political differences," he said.

"I really hope that the riots that we had in 2024 [in the wake of the Southport attack] have made politicians from all sides sit up and think and take action."

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