The perception of two-tier policing undermines public trust, Dame Priti Patel has said.

The former home secretary said that police have been “absent in some areas” during the riots and said the Government “should be held to account over it”.

“There does seem to be a perception of two-tier policing. That’s why we have to be asking important questions to the Government and on the operational side,” she told The Times.

“But there is something else, which is, and I think this is a worry, that of course notions of that and perceptions of that basically lead to a degree of undermining public trust and confidence in policing. That bothers me a lot, it really does.”

Accusations of two-tier policing – the idea that right-wing protesters are treated more harshly than those on the left – have rained in since the outbreak of violence in the wake of the Southport killings.

Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed the suggestion of two-tier policing as a “non-issue”, despite coming under repeated attacks from tech billionaire Elon Musk, who branded him “two-tier Keir”, in response to rioters hurling missiles at a pub in Birmingham.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has labelled claims of police bias as “absolute nonsense”.

Dame Priti, who is running for the Tory leadership, said: “I think it was possibly either on Monday or Tuesday night, we saw scenes in Birmingham where an individual was being assaulted and attacked and effectively beaten up.

“We don’t know the facts as to what went on in Birmingham. I simply don’t know the operational decisions that were made around that time. I think it’s important that we ask those questions.”

Dame Priti’s comments were slammed by Neil Basu, the former head of UK counter-terrorism, who claimed that her “divisive” rhetoric was putting officers “at risk”.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Mr Basu said: “That is a very divisive comment.

“I’ll echo what my friend Commissioner Mark Rowley said earlier on in the week – two-tier policing is absolute nonsense.”

He continued: “If you look like me, if you happen to be black or Asian in this country, the idea that there’s some form of two-tier policing where if you’re white working class you get a raw deal from the police, it’s quite frankly a little bit laughable after 200 years of being over-policed and under-protected.

“But you want to start putting that message out, you are putting every one of my former colleagues at risk.”

Some 741 people have now been arrested over rioting according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council, of which 304 have been charged.