A mob of hundreds of people in Southport used the “death of three little kiddies” for their “own political purposes”, the MP for the Merseyside town has said.
Patrick Hurley accused “beered-up thugs” of disrespecting the families of three girls, aged six, seven and nine, who were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club on Monday.
Around 200 protesters clashed with police in Southport on Tuesday night, damaging cars in a mosque car park and hurling bricks, fireworks and masonry at police officers.
Thirty-nine officers were injured and 27 taken to hospital, according to North West Ambulance Service – while three police dogs were also wounded.
Mr Hurley, who was elected as the Labour MP for Southport earlier this month, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “These were thugs who got the train in, these were not the people from Southport.
“They were using the horrific incident on Monday, the deaths of three little kiddies, for their own political purposes and actually to attack the very same first responders and the very same police, who had been on the scene on Monday, were then being pelted with bricks the day after by these thugs.”
Mr Hurley accused the mob of “utterly disrespecting” the families of the dead and the wider town.
He added: “Even if this lad, the 17-year-old, turns out to be Muslim, under no circumstances does that justify any attack on a mosque by anybody at all, not least these beered-up thugs who have descended on the town last night intent on causing trouble.”
On Tuesday night, Jenni Stancombe, the mother of Elsie Dot Stancombe, the seven-year-old stabbing victim, issued an appeal on social media for the violence to stop.
Ms Stancombe praised the police response as “nothing but heroic”, saying: “This is the only thing that I will write, but please stop the violence in Southport tonight.”
In an interview with Times Radio, Mr Hurley said residents who attended a peaceful vigil at 6pm on Tuesday represented the “real Southport” and had united despite “reeling from the atrocity”.
“It was lovely to see the town come together in such a positive sense of solidarity and community. And that’s the real Southport.
“They were the people who were hurting all yesterday, and they wanted to gather and be together, and that’s what we really should be thinking about today.”
Amplified fake messaging
He went on to blame misinformation on social media for violent scenes in his constituency, saying fake news about the killing of the three girls had had a “real world impact”.
Russian state media were among those falsely identifying the suspect as an asylum seeker, who had arrived in the UK by boat last year.
Asked what was behind the violence, he replied: “The propaganda and the lies that were being spread around on social media from within minutes of the news breaking on Monday afternoon.
“We’d had all sorts of lies being spread and misinformation being spread about the alleged perpetrator and some people with the best of intentions, then they try to rebut this they tried to argue back, but all that happens is you’re just amplifying people’s false messaging.
“And what we saw then 24 hours from Monday afternoon to yesterday afternoon, this misinformation doesn’t just exist on people’s internet browsers and on people’s phones, it has real world impact… Hundreds of people descending on the town, descending on Southport, intending on causing trouble.”
Mr Hurley accused the mob of either believing fake news or being “bad faith actors who wrote it in the first place, intent on causing community division”.
He said police intelligence suggested the “vast majority” of those present were from “out of town”.
The MP added: “The police they were attacking last night… were the very same first responders and the very same emergency services that had gone through possibly the most traumatic day of their entire lives the day before, when they had to deal with the immediate aftermath of the little girls being killed.”
Asked about Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, being heckled when he visited Southport on Tuesday to lay a wreath and meet with emergency services, Mr Hurley said there was “not a single thing” Sir Keir had done to lead to the stabbings.
“There’s not a single thing that a person in a position of authority has done that anyone can justify being called ‘liars’ and ‘traitors’ and all of these things on social media.
“This is a swirling morass on social media of lies and propaganda and people being given the platform to say the most vile of things in the most vile of circumstances.”
Source Agencies
