THE scenes of aggression, intimidation and violence we have seen in city centres in England over the last couple of weeks have been truly awful.

There is absolutely no way that criminal behaviour can be condoned and there is no place for it in our communities.

The shocking images we witnessed on television of these disturbances cannot be described as "protest".

Having the ability to protest should be an essential part of any society but what we witnessed, that wasn't protest.

It was outright criminal behaviour and for many of those that took part, they seized an opportunity to behave appallingly and to voice their intolerances of others.

I had many constituents email me voicing their concerns at what we saw and the swift manner in which many of the culprits have been dealt with shows that hatred has no place on our streets or in our society.

Across our constituency we have many real issues impacting local people.

In 2010, there were 40,000 people in the UK that relied on a Foodbank to provide them with food to survive.

When the Conservatives left government at the start of July 2024, there were 3.6 million people using foodbanks.

That specific example of poverty is a result of austerity.

People of all ages have suffered from cuts to the welfare state, the NHS, education, housing, voluntary groups, reduced money given from the Scottish government to local councils that mean halls and centres that are vital parts of community's are now under threat.

The truth is that none of these cuts that negatively impact our communities are the fault of immigrants.

Instead, it's been governments in Westminster and Holyrood making political choices that have impoverished many.

These choices and the resulting drop in living standards are the real reasons why people and communities feel so desperately unhappy.

With a new government comes change.

Labour's New Deal for Working People is the most transformative set of improvements to workers rights in a generation.

It will give proper job security by ending exploitative fire and re-hire and one sided benefit zero hours contracts.

Workers will have rights from day 1 of employment and it will also provide a wage workers can genuinely live on – vital for stopping in work poverty.

The route to making things better doesn't involve pointing the finger of blame for the problems we have as a country to any group of people.

We must come together and be unified in wanting better for everyone in society.