EU elections: Mayors of Liverpool and Manchester unite to urge voters to reject 'divisive, hateful' candidates

The mayors of Manchester and Liverpool have warned the European elections could leave the northwest represented by people with “extreme and divisive views”.

Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham called for voters to reject Tommy Robinson, accusing the English Defence League founder of “inciting trouble, division and hate”.

They also called on Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, which is surging in the polls, to remove a candidate who defended the IRA in the 1990s.

Mr Burnham, the Labour mayor of Manchester and former shadow home secretary, said he understood that local people were “frustrated with politics”.

“But we won’t make our politics better, and bring the north west back together, by giving any legitimacy to people with extreme, divisive views,” he added.

“We urge people to reject the politics of Tommy Robinson. The fact that he has no connection with the north west but has sought out our region as a platform for his views exposes him as an opportunist.

“This man incites division, trouble and hate wherever he goes. He is not fit to represent the northwest of England.”

Mr Rotherham, the Labour mayor of Liverpool, said it was “less than a week away from the prospect of extremists and fascists becoming the people who represent our region”.

“It’s no surprise given the dysfunction at Westminster, that people want to register their discontent with a centralised political system, which they feel simply isn’t listening to them,” he added.

“But, my real worry is that it will be the people who seek to divide us who will be the beneficiaries of that anger.

“Next week is not simply about who wins an election, it is about who we are and the values we hold. That’s why I would urge everyone to ensure they vote to keep out the extremists.”

The mayors called for Brexit Party candidate Claire Fox, who is a favourite to win a seat according to opinion polls, to be removed from the list or rejected over her comments on the 1993 IRA Warrington bombings.

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When dissident republicans killed two children and shot a police officer, Ms Fox was a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, which released a statement defending “the right of the Irish people to take whatever measures necessary in their struggle for freedom”.

A spokesman for the Brexit Party previously said that while Ms Fox does not deny she held those views in the past, the statement was more than 20 years ago and she supported a peaceful solution and the Good Friday Agreement.

In separate statement released in April, Ms Fox said: “My political views have never made me insensitive to the pain and suffering caused to the innocent victims of events such as the Warrington bomb.”

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has been on the receiving end of numerous statements and letters of condemnation during his campaign.

He has also been heckled, physically attacked and drenched with milkshakes while touring cities and towns in the northwest.

Ahead of his scheduled visit to Liverpool on Sunday, retired footballer Jamie Carragher and three Merseyside MPs said they would “let him know his politics are not welcome”.

“There are both Leave and Remain voters in Bootle but people here did not vote for hate, they took part in a democratic referendum which Yaxley-Lennon is using to breed a narrative that does not represent the residents of Bootle,” a letter said.

Robinson put the slew of condemnation down to “traitor MPs and media”.

In a statement released to followers on Thursday, he claimed that critics were showing “how detached from the people they actually are”.

“Their narrative couldn't be further from the truth,” he added. “I am extremely happy with the reception I have received by many during my campaign, with many places for me still left to visit.”

Robinson faces being jailed for up to two years at fresh contempt of court proceedings starting in London on 4 July, where he is accused of breaking a reporting restriction on grooming trials.

He is also being sued for defamation over his remarks about a Syrian refugee who was attacked at his school in Huddersfield last year. Jamal Hijazi’s family are seeking £100,000 in damages.

Robinson has been asking supporters for donations towards his European elections campaign and “news” website.

The firm that facilitates the online payments, Stripe, took down both accounts this week for violations of its terms of service.

Following a letter from American lawyers representing Robinson, they reinstated the “vote Tommy” account used for elections fundraising for a two-week review period.

Stripe’s terms prohibit “any business or organisation that … engages in, encourages, promotes or celebrates unlawful violence toward any group based on race, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other immutable characteristic".

Robinson has been asking for donations on the campaign trail, through his channel on the encrypted messaging app Telegram and in YouTube videos.

YouTube restricted his personal channel earlier this year but a new channel called "Vote Tommy Robinson MEP for North West, England" has not been subject to the same restrictions on how videos can be shared, searched and interacted with.

The new campaign channel says it is operated by Robinson’s “campaign” team, while videos come with notes that read: "This account is not run by Tommy Robinson."

Yvette Cooper, the chair of the home affairs committee, accused YouTube of "repeatedly failing to act" despite the committee making it aware of "hateful and extremist content" on the platform.

"Even worse than just hosting these channels, YouTube's money-making algorithms are actually promoting them - pushing more and more extremist content at people with every click," she said.

"We know what can happen when hateful content is allowed to proliferate online and yet YouTube and other companies continue to profit from pushing this poison."