Lee Anderson’s remarks on airport video ‘irresponsible’

Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham has criticised Reform UK MP Lee Anderson for his response to footage which appeared to show a police officer kicking and stamping on a man.

Mr Anderson told the BBC the police officers involved faced a “clear risk” and should be “commended”.

However, Labour’s Mr Burnham branded his comments “irresponsible” and said the footage was “very disturbing”.

An officer has been suspended over the incident at Manchester Airport on Tuesday.

Footage which circulated online showed a uniformed male officer holding a taser over the man, who was lying on the ground at Terminal 2, before striking him twice.

In the build-up to the incident shown in the clip, a police spokesman said firearms officers had been punched to the ground while trying to make an arrest following a fight in the airport.

There had been a “clear risk” their weapons could be taken from them, the police spokesman said, adding all three had been taken to hospital, one with a broken nose.

Four men were arrested on suspicion of assault and affray.

The video sparked a protest outside Rochdale police station on Wednesday night, where hundreds of people gathered, and chants of “shame on you” were heard.

In response to the footage, Mr Anderson, who defected to Reform from the Conservatives earlier this year, said: “We need to back our police officers”.

The MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire told the BBC: “The message I’m getting loud and clear from my constituents is that they are fed up with seeing police dancing around rainbows and being nice to people.

“They want the police to do their job. I think these police yesterday should be commended. In fact, I’d give them a medal.”

He added: “If there’s a clear risk, if people are trying to take police officers’ guns, if they’re breaking female police officers’ nose, dragging police officers to the floor, sending police officers to the hospital, then I think police officers there have got a right to restrain those criminals as soon as possible and use whatever means it takes.”

Meanwhile, fellow Reform MP Richard Tice told Talk TV the footage was “reassuring”, rather than “distressing”.

Asked for his reaction to Mr Anderson’s comments, Mr Burnham told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme: “I just find those kind of statements irresponsible from people who have been elected to Parliament, because when you are in a leadership position, I think you have to consider things more carefully and in the round.”

He said repeating “snap judgments” resulted in “a very polarised society”, adding: “An elected representative shouldn’t be doing that.”

Mr Burnham said he had seen more footage of events leading up to the incident, which he said showed it was “not a clear-cut situation” and there were “issues for both sides”.

He said there was an issue on a flight landing at the airport and an “altercation” in the arrivals hall, which escalated “very quickly”.

He added that it was right the officer involved had been suspended and the matter referred to the police watchdog.

Labour’s Foreign Office minister Baroness Jenny Chapman also criticised Mr Anderson for his comments.

She told BBC 2’s Politics Live: “I think Lee is completely wrong to rush to a conclusion like that, not in full possession of all the facts.”

She added: “I don’t think that it is right for politicians to go around grandstanding and trying to make political capital out of this at this stage.”

Earlier Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he understood the public’s concern over the footage and there was now “a process” following the suspension of the officer.

Paul Waugh, Labour MP for Rochdale, where the man who was filmed being kicked lives, said the video was “shocking and disturbing” and he would be meeting the man’s family later.

He said police faced a difficult job, but they had to show the highest standards of conduct in their duties.

Akhmed Yakoob, the lawyer representing the men involved in the incident, said one of them was admitted to hospital with severe head pain.

“This is a family of a serving police officer in Manchester – and they want justice,” he said.

“They are proud of their family member being a police officer – their brother, their son – but imagine how they’re feeling now?

“We need answers from Greater Manchester Police because it’s ridiculous. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. It’s becoming common – police brutality against people of BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] backgrounds. It’s disgusting.”