Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and Shadow Health Minister, welcomed, on Tuesday 6 December, the evidence in the Guardian’s 'Reading the Riots'. Diane, who will shortly publish her own account of the riots, has warned that very little progress had been made in addressing the root causes of the riots and that the likelihood of further rioting is likely.

‘I think, as a whole, we’ve ended up being lumbered with a dangerously simplistic account of what happened. None of the frustration or anger that is felt in communities like mine in Hackney has been properly discussed, and I’m gravely concerned that we may well end up seeing further unrest.

‘I think the sense of being disregarded, marginalised and not listened to, in some parts of London, has actually been heightened by how simplistic the government’s response has been. A number of communities feel they don’t have any control over their own lives. They feel harassed by the police and marginalised by their economic and job prospects – and are bombarded with reminders of lives they will, in all likelihood, never have. I think communities like mine are absolutely sick of being told ‘we’re all this together’, when it’s clear that we’re not all in it together.’

‘The research in my area of London shows that there needs to be a completely new relationship with the police. It’s also really concerning that in Hackney alone, since January 2011 there has been a 80.6% rise in young people on the dole for over six months.

Ms Abbott also added: ‘I don’t think people who want to raise issues like unemployment, consumerism, inequality, the role of British families or what’s happening with the Olympics, should be constantly attacked and shouted down.’