‘Far right means anyone who wants to support British values’: the mobilisation of British values talk in accounts of UK race riots in August 2024.

How are race riots absolved of overt racial motivations? Social psychological research has shown how far-right leaders mobilise people by claiming that majority populations are threatened or silenced. This paper examines a related process: how riotous actions are explained and justified through appeals to ‘British values.’ Using discursive psychology, we analyse talk surrounding the riots that followed the stabbing of three young girls in Southport, England—the UK race riots of August 2024. We show that invoking British or English values serves two key functions: it renders rioters’ actions self-explanatory and offers a competing account of rioters as the more authentic representation of Britishness and the British people than the government. This reframing shifts attention away from ‘far-right’ motivations, instead portraying the riots as effortful and even ideal expressions of British citizenship. Thus, British values operate not merely as symbols but as rhetorical tools linking the riots, immigration, state policy, and national identity.