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There could be a repeat of the 2011 riots unless more is done to tackle inequality, a senior

MP has warned.

David Lammy , who wants to be Labour’s candidate for London mayor in 2016, said the disillusioned young must get “hope and opportunity”.

The ex-minister blamed the riots three years ago on a “Grand Theft Auto” culture glamourising violence and a “fixation on the brands we wear, not who we are and what we achieve.”

He said “undercurrents” which led to the unrest are still there and affect not just young black people, but alienated white working class men and members of the Muslim community.

Mr Lammy said today’s generation does not have the same opportunity he or his parents had when they arrived from Guyana in the 1950s. He said: “I am running because I want to talk about that and I want a London for all Londoners.”

The barrister insisted Britain has “tremendous problems.” He went on: “One in four young people in London are unemployed, you have falling wages, people unable to get on the housing ladder and facing rising rents. It’s easy and crude to blame these problems on immigrants.”

He wants a living wage, more action on house building and capped rents.

Mr Lammy, 42, who is married with three young children, contrasts his upbringing in Tottenham, North London, with the future of young people in the capital today.

His parents were among those who came from the Caribbean after the Second World War.

Raised by his hard-up mother after his parents split, Mr Lammy said it was still possible for him to get ahead with hard work. He added: “It’s a real struggle now to be without assets and on the minimum wage.”