London riots: Prince Charles cares more than Cameron, Miliband and Clegg says senior MP

London mayoral hopeful David Lammy says Prince Charles has returned to scene of riots five times, four times more than each of the party leaders

Labour say that less than 16 per cent of the requested cash has been paid out, more than two years after violence and looting broke out across the capital (PA)

Prince Charles cares a lot more about the continued impact of the 2011 riots than the leaders of the three main parties, an MP hoping to become London mayor has said.

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, said David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg were keen to be seen responding to the unrest that gripped the streets of London three and a half years ago but none of them had returned to the area since their first visit in the summer of 2011.

Tottenham was the area hit the hardest by the riots and the next in line to the thrown has visited five times since 2011 – four more times than each of the three party leaders.

Mr Lammy was defending the role of the monarchy in Britain during a live Question Time debate hosted by The Independent in central London.

Praising the work of Prince Charles, he said: “The toughest of my day of my political life was walking down Tottenham high road the morning after the riots and comforting many who were standing just in their pyjamas, holding their kids with their shops burnt to the ground, and sometimes their homes [too].

“I got a number of phone calls in the course of that day. David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and they all said ‘can we come?’ And they came. None of them came back.

Prince Charles visited Tottenham shortly after the area was gripped by unrest and has returned five times (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

“Prince Charles also phoned. He came; he has been back five times and he doesn’t just come back to look at it, he’s brought all his charities… he hasn’t done it with a fanfare, he hasn’t put out press releases, he’s just done it because he cares.

“So my experience up close of him personally, is actually he’s put more into the community I represent than some of those that represent our parties.”

From left: Ivan Massow, David Lammy, George Galloway, Amol Rajan, Janet Street-Porter and Maajid Nawaz at Tuesday night’s event (Micha Theiner)

The event, held at the Banking Hall, was chaired by Amol Rajan, the Editor of The Independent, and featured an eclectic panel of politicians including Respect MP George Galloway and Maajid Nawaz, the Liberal Democrat candidate and chairman of the counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam, as well as the Independent columnist Janet Street-Porter.