Nick Clegg rejects claims of leaderless government in the face of London riots

Clegg rejected the statement just as it emerged that home secretary Theresa May is flying back to the UK for talks with police chiefs about the disturbances.

Although the home secretary issued statements about the rioting over the weekend and said it had discussed the situation with the police and the prime minister, the Home Office refused to comment on her whereabouts.

Officials would not say whether her return was scheduled or whether she was cutting short a holiday to deal with the crisis.

Clegg defended the government's response to the trouble and condemned what he described as "needless opportunistic theft and violence – nothing more, nothing less".

Clegg described the violence as "completely unacceptable" and added that the government was standing "side by side with those people in those communities who utterly condemn the violence and the theft.”

In the aftermath of the riots, which are still ongoing in certain parts of London, complaints that the government did not have a senior minister in London at the weekend when the rioting broke out arose.

But Clegg insisted that senior members of the cabinet had been in regular contact by phone.

"I reject completely this notion that somehow this government hasn't been functioning very effectively," said Clegg, who said he had spoken to David Cameron, who is on holiday in Italy, by phone on Monday morning.

"We have arranged things to make sure that this government works effectively on all the issues of the day. We are in constant contact with each other and we are working as effectively this week as we do in every other week of the year."

The Guardian is reporting that May will be in the office on Monday afternoon for briefings on the disturbances, which saw more than 100 people arrested on Sunday night after the rioting that started in Tottenham on Saturday spread to other areas of the capital.

Her return was preceded by a second night of rioting across London, as violence erupted in several of the capital's boroughs, from Brixton in the south to Enfield and Islington in the north and Walthamstow to the east.

What police are calling "copycat criminal activity" – some of it apparently part of an orchestrated plan – has so far resulted in 100 arrests.

In the meantime, the Metropolitan police said they would be putting more officers on the streets to restore order.

Steve Kavanagh, a deputy assistant commissioner, said there were three times as many officers on duty on Sunday night as there had been when rioting broke out in Tottenham on Saturday, and promised that even more would be deployed on Monday.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, when asked whether the police would be able to prevent a third night of disorder, he said: "I can be very assured that there will be even more officers out there, even more committed and braver than they have been so far, to make sure London stays as safe as possible."