Eamonn Holmes wants to 'slap' child rioters 'across the head' as violence continues

Eamonn Holmes and his GB News co-host Isabel Webster discussed the ongoing riots with their guest Freddy Gray on Tuesday's instalment of their GB News programme as 400 people have been arrested in a week of violence.

Freddy, the Spectator's Deputy Editor, said: "It's very hard to police cities and it always happens in the summer. Why? Because temperatures rise." Isabel interjected: "Schools are out, kids are bored. We are seeing kids as young as 11 being in the hands of the police..."

When Freddy said the "Olympics aren't quite interesting enough" Isabel warned: "Stop it, wash your mouth out!" Weighing in on the conversation, Eamonn exclaimed: "But it's true, if I was 11 I'd be watching the Olympics.

"These people... I watched a guy last night on the news kicking down someone's front door and he must have been 10 or 11. And you just want to go out and slap them across the head and throw the little brat in bed."

The violence began in Southport after three children were killed during a dance class and protests have been held in London, Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Bolton, and Northern Ireland. The violence came after claims circulated online that the killer was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat last year.

Heidi Alexander, the justice minister, has revealed that the Government has made over 500 additional prison places available to deal with rioting and that around 6,000 specialist police officers are on standby.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she assured: "We will make sure that anyone who is given a custodial sentence as a result of the riots and disorder, there will be a prison place waiting for them."

She further explained: "What we have been able to do in the last week since the problems have arisen is that we have been able to bring forward some additional prison places that we had been due to bring on stream later in the month. There are 567 additional prison places."

When questioned about the capacity of lawyers to handle the influx of prosecutions and the possibility of courts operating overnight, the justice minister confidently told Times Radio: "I think we will make it work, because these are extraordinary circumstances and we need to be delivering swift justice."

She also shed more light on the proposed "standing army" of police officers, informing Times Radio: "These are police officers who have had specialist training in dealing with public order offences. We had 4,000 available at the weekend.

"There will be another 2,000 available this week. It also means that police officers are able to be deployed in parts of the country where they are needed most."

GB News with Eamonn and Isabel airs on weekdays from 6am.