Britain doesn’t just have a problem with two-tier policing but with a “two-tier government,” critics have claimed after a Labour Home Office minister was accused of “making excuses” for intimidation by Muslim youths.
A Sky News broadcast from Birmingham’s Yardley Wood—where hundreds of Muslims were gathered amid growing nationwide tension—was interrupted on Monday by a masked man on a motorbike shouting “yo, free Palestine, f**k the EDL [English Defence League],” and who was quickly joined by three others acting in an intimidating manner.
Jess Phillips, a prominent Labour figure who is MP for the area and is now the safeguarding minister in the Home Office, effectively blamed the action on the ‘far-right,’ saying on Twitter/X that while “anyone committing criminality should face the law,”
These people came to this location because it has been spread that racists were coming to attack them. This misinformation was spread entirely to create this content.
Phillip Blond, a leading figure in the “Red Tory” (economically left-leaning and culturally traditional) political movement, accused Phillips of offering “exculpatory excuses for violent assembly.” He said the minister was “refusing to see and condemn explicit lawlessness by one seemingly favoured group while using the full power of the state against another,” warning that
Restoring consensus requires both to be proscribed, if not it will only drive the perception of two-tier policing and help realise it.
There has also been strong pushback against Phillips’ comments by shadow home secretary James Cleverly and Reform UK MP Lee Anderson, who said she must “apologise for this and then resign.”
Journalist Sarah Vine also commented that “a group of tooled-up thugs is a group of thugs, regardless of motive or affiliation. Two-tier policing? More like two-tier government.” Little wonder the PM has recently acquired the nickname “Two-tier Keir.”
In the past week, the BBC has instinctively labelled most protesters and rioters as ‘far right’. In contrast, the “unrest in the east of Birmingham” involved “hundreds of people gathered in the Bordesley Green area following false reports that a far-right march had been planned there.”
Palestinian flags were waved and anti-English Defence League chants were heard at the gathering. A group of youths later broke away and reportedly attacked several vehicles and a pub.
Later in the evening, a group of Muslim youths did indeed attack several vehicles and The Clumsy Swan public house. Muslim elders have since visited the establishment and severely condemned the attack.
While the elders call for peace, similar violence is predicted in the week ahead, at a list of locations nationwide now circulating on social media.
