"The seeds of the riot were sown hundreds of miles away - and Braverman was silent for hours"

Darren Lewis says the events of the weekend in Knowsley reminded him of the problems he faced as a child, and it stemmed from years of hostile fires in Westminster

Suella Braverman took an age to respond to the riot (

Image: Getty Images)

Saturday morning felt like I stepped out of a time machine.

Especially after watching the appalling scenes in Knowsley, Merseyside: a screaming mob surrounding a hotel that houses people seeking refuge in Britain.

There were signs that read, "This is our town." Clashes between police and demonstrators chanting racial slurs. A burnt-out police van.

And, through it all, terrified women and children among the many who were holed up inside the building.

As for Interior Minister Cruella Suella Braverman, the silence lasted for hours. Likewise his office.

A burnt out police van after a protest outside the Suites hotel in Knowsley where people were protesting against asylum seekers staying at the hotel (

Picture:

PENNSYLVANIA)

It could easily have been the UK of my parents' time, the 1960s - or mine, the 1970s - when landlords openly defied the Race Relations Act 1968 to deny blacks and Browns to find accommodation or work. When Braverman finally managed to utter a few words late Saturday afternoon, it was more like his usual inflammatory rhetoric.

“I condemn the appalling mess that happened last night at Knowsley,” she tweeted.

"The alleged behavior of some asylum seekers is never an excuse for violence and intimidation." The problem is that she pushed him.

The incident that sparked the protests is still under investigation, but has already been obscured by lies and misinformation that have been spread via social media.

But the seeds had been sown long before what happened last week in Knowsley. They had been sown a hundred...