Loose Women star Charlene White has shared a passionate message to far-right supporters after riots across the country following fatal stabbings in Southport

When far-right riots broke out around the country, the scenes of hate brought back bad memories for Loose Women ’s Charlene White.

Born and raised in south-east London, Charlene grew up a couple of miles from Eltham – a stronghold of the racist far-right National Front, and the place where black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racially motivated attack in 1993.

Charlene, the daughter of Jamaican parents, says the language used in the recent riots was the same language she heard frequently as a child.

She says: “I grew up knowing the rumblings of the far right and racism – I’ve certainly had racist abuse thrown in my direction. But I know my worth. Those people believe that through violence, dissent, and aggression, they can control what I do with my life. The sort of language they were using was the same language of generations ago. I choose to not let those people have control over how I feel about myself.”

Riot police officers push back anti-migration protesters outside the Holiday Inn Express Hotel which is housing asylum seekers ( 
Image:
Getty Images)

The riots followed the fatal stabbings in Southport of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar on July 29. The ugly scenes across the country, hijacking the nation’s grief, were organised by the far right.

Newsreader Charlene adds: “There’s a small section of society that feels through behaving in that way, they can control what happens to those they don’t like – those they hate simply because of where they’re from. I choose to not give them power over me. I choose to still do the things that I want to do in my life.”

And she points to the contrasting scenes in Walthamstow, north-east London, where thousands turned out for a peaceful counter-protest and drowned out the extremists.

Charlene says: “The only thing that made me emotional during those entire few days was the thousands that turned up at Walthamstow. That’s the country that I’ve been raised in, and the place I call home.”

Home is something that holds deep resonance for the former I’m A Celebrity contestant, who is best known for presenting ITV News and sitting on the Loose Women panel.

It is at the heart of her first book, No Place Like Home. In it, she shares her own sense of home as a Jamaican Londoner, and interviews eight others who give their perspectives, shaped by events ranging from difficult family situations to political upheaval and war.

Nadia Sawalha, Charlene White, Judi Love and Jane Moore on Loose Women
It includes someone who went through the care system, and a family from Ukraine displaced by Russia ’s invasion. It is a timely piece of work. Charlene explains: “I don’t think any individual has the right to tell somebody else where they can call home. We have so many cultures who live here as a result of the empire. Great Britain wouldn’t be if we didn’t become the mix of cultures we are. My grandparents came here because they were asked to come to help rebuild the country.

“My hope is these people stop believing they can control where somebody else calls home. It’s a fundamental right to be able to be somewhere safe, where you can raise your family for the betterment of the country that you move to.”

For Charlene, home is South London, where she lives with partner Andy Woodfield and their children Alfie, seven, and Florence, five.

The seeds of her book began back in 2021 after working on her documentary Empire’s Child for ITV – exploring how the legacy of the British Empire has shaped her own family’s history. It left her feeling the need to explore further. She says: “There was a scene where the genealogist had taken me to a patch of land my ancestors had bought when they became freed slaves.

“I had a really weird reaction to it – my entire body just crumbled. It felt like I had this connection to this bit of land I’d never been to. It got me thinking about how I feel about home. I grew up in this Jamaican household in London, so my heart belongs in two places. There’s room for more than one place in your heart.”

Unexpectedly, the book also gave her dad Dennis a voice to tell a story he had bottled up for decades. He had been what is called a “barrel child” – youngsters left behind when parents move for work, eventually sent for when finances allow it.

Charlene says: “For my dad, that took over a decade. While he lived with his uncle in Jamaica, my grandparents had further children here. At 16, he arrived to two parents he’d not seen since he was a toddler – and these sisters he’d never met. It’s really hard for him. I learned about the impact on him emotionally, and why he’s the person he is. There are thousands who had to deal with that as children. Not all survived in the way my dad did.”

One thread that runs through Charlene’s book is the idea that safety and security as a child affect who you become as an adult. She says: “The partners you choose, the life you lead, the jobs you do, the people you have around you. If you’ve had a safe and secure childhood, it’s reflected in adulthood. I think we underestimate how important it is.”

She accepts that her children have a privileged life compared to many of those in her bulletins. And she ensures they know all about current affairs. She says: “They’re very aware of the world. We have conversations about it. We watch Newsround on CBBC every morning, and if they have questions, we talk about it.”

Unlike her own parents did, she would not discourage them from going into journalism. She says: “Coming from an immigrant household, there are specific jobs we were supposed to go into like doctor, dentist, lawyer, accountant. So they were really upset when I decided to do journalism. They didn’t forgive me until I got my first job!”

No Place Like Home is out on September 5