RIOTS could break out across the UK this summer as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic take hold, a scientific adviser to the UK Government has warned.

Professor Clifford Stott, a behavioural expert, said there was a risk of disorder on a scale last seen during the London riots in August 2011 - sparked by the police shooting of Mark Duggan - if urgent efforts were not made by police forces to quell any potential unrest in the neighbourhoods they served.

The member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies sub-committee on behaviour said mass job losses and rising unemployment due to the pandemic, as well as concerns about racial and economic inequality, could all be factors in fuelling "confrontations" in the coming months.

The Professor of Social Psychology at Keele University in the Midlands said a possible divide between poorer and more affluent areas brought on by local lockdowns - if brought into force - could also have an effect.

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Speaking in a personal capacity, he told the PA news agency: "If the police don't invest in building positive police-community relations now, there is a potential for serious and large public disorder to emerge this summer.

“In the worst-case scenario, it's not inconceivable that we could have disorder on a scale equivalent to August 2011.

"What we need to do is to make sure we start addressing the underlying causes now, so that the conditions that led to the 2011 riots are not in place should we get a precipitating incident.

"Put simply, the most effective thing that the police can do is put bobbies on the beat," declared Prof Stott, who has advised the Home Office on public order strategy.

He explained that circumstances in the UK would change "quite considerably" in the coming months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, saying: "There are important issues about inequality that could, if not dealt with properly, feed into a situation in the future over the summer months where confrontations develop."

The expert claimed localised lockdowns could become "very, very problematic" for police officers if the rules meant people living in poorer areas were more likely to face tougher restrictions than those in more affluent neighbourhoods.

Enforcement, generally, had become "pretty impossible now to a large extent" as lockdown measures were eased, noted Prof Stott.

The danger, he warned, was that some gatherings were "probably very likely" to involve groups of young men on working class estates, which could then attract more police attention.

“That could create a circumstance when lots of young men feel it's unfair about what's happening to them. And where the police try to enforce that unfairness, it could create a breakdown in social cohesion, lead to a sense of unfairness in policing. We know that those factors are often drivers for social conflict," explained Prof Stott.

He said growing concerns about the "disproportionate" use of Tasers against black people and those with mental health problems, raised by the police watchdog last month as it investigated a series of incidents, could also run the risk of becoming a trigger for unrest.

Any second Covid-19 spike forcing the country back into lockdown when people were "significantly economically disadvantaged" could also "increase dissent about the conditions of people's lives", said the academic.

Asked whether the allegations over Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser breaching lockdown could contribute to unrest, Prof Stott replied: "We are at a really, really pivotal time and the loss of trust and confidence that has been brought about by the Cummings affair has not assisted in maintaining that adherence; that's quite clear."

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Ben-Julian Harrington, the Chief Constable of Essex who leads the National Police Chiefs' Council's work on public order and safety, stressed how police work within communities to tackle crime and solve problems was informed by local active engagement.

"Where there are tensions, we work with communities to address concerns and respond sensitively. This will continue as restrictions continue to ease over the course of the summer.”

He added: "We are also well-prepared to respond to any rises in crime or disorder."

Meanwhile, economic experts claimed the high unemployment rates caused by the coronavirus’s impact on the economy would take more than seven years to return to pre-outbreak levels.

According to experts at least one in 10 people could be out of work by the end of June.

Speaking before the Commons Treasury Committee, the head of the Resolution Foundation think-tank said he had serious concerns over the economic consequences of the pandemic and the impact it could have on the labour market.

Torsten Bell explained that compared to the last recession in 2008, where sectors such as retail and hospitality were able to re-employ many people who had lost their jobs, this time it would be more difficult to recover.

As a result, it is likely to take longer for the economy to recover and unemployment to return to the rate it was before the pandemic struck.

Mr Bell also suggested the phasing out of the Government job retention scheme(JRS) was likely to see "a second wave" of unemployment.

"In terms of employment growth, reasons to be nervous are the sectors that have generally been the sectors quickest to start bringing people back from unemployment into work are hospitality and retail.

"If you look at hospitality and non-food retail after the financial crisis, they were 10% of the jobs, but they were 22% of the moves from unemployment into work in the crisis, and they cannot do that this time in the same way, This is a very different kind of crisis."

The think-tank director added: "Remember, there are two million workers just in hospitality probably on the JRS scheme, it’s the sector most affected."

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Mr Bell said that in the 2008 financial crash, employment rates recovered by around 0.7% per year, and if the peak unemployment was 10% of the workforce, it would take at least seven years to return to where they were prior to the recession.

"Let's say unemployment peaks at 10%...The OBR suggested 9%, a little optimistic but it isn't miles off... If it falls at the average rate of the last few recessions - 0.7% for the year - we take a fall for seven years to get back to 5% unemployment.

"Because we've all lived through record employment for the last five years, we have forgotten how slow in general unemployment bounce-backs are," he added.