Tory police and crime commissioner puts 'divisive' riots statement back online

Hampshire Tory police and crime commissioner Donna Jones has stubbornly refused to back down over a controversial statement that appeared to justify the activities of the far right and riots up and down the UK.

- DAVID MADDOX

Ms Jones had said in the statement posted online on Saturday night that arresting thugs was “treating the symptom and not the cause” before it was deleted after attracting widespread criticism. She put the statement back on the official website for Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner but with a clarification statement underlining she does not condone the violent scenes.

It appeared Ms Jones had decided to take it down, or had been ordered to do so, because of its provocative language at a time of heightened tensions in the UK, with violent civil unrest in Southport, Liverpool, Hull, Hartlepool, London, Belfast and Rotherham.

But it has since emerged that Ms Jones removed it because she referenced her role as chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners. She kept the statement on her Facebook page and then around 3pm, just as far-right thugs were besieging and setting fire to a migrant hotel in Rotherham, she put it back on the Hampshire PCC official website.

Critics had reacted furiously to the language in her statement which appeared to put the blame on migrants and a “lack of British values”. In a tweet sharing the statement, former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal branded it “totally unacceptable”.