The Labour mayor of Liverpool has called for two Liberal Democrat councillors to be suspended and investigated after they reportedly made comparisons between a plan to manage overcrowding at a local train station to Auschwitz.
Councillor Richard Kemp, the city’s former lord mayor, said that the plan, which introduced “fan pens” designed to limit footfall on Everton matchdays, was “like the greeting area for Auschwitz” during a planning meeting on August 25, according to the Liverpool Echo.
Meanwhile, Councillor Pat Moloney said the proposed expansion of the fan management zone was like “something out of a horrific death camp in Nazi Germany”.
Kemp, who is reported to have previously had good relations with the local Jewish community and was a vocal critic of Jeremy Corbyn during the Labour antisemitism crisis, subsequently told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he stood by his comments, while Moloney said he apologised if his remarks had caused any offence.
Following the outcry, Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and Labour Councillor Liam Robinson, who leads the city council, wrote a letter to Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey on Tuesday asking for a formal apology.
The pair stated that it was “surely wholly unacceptable for an experienced Liberal Democrat councillor to employ such language at a public meeting”.
“Casual comparisons between terminology routinely used in transport and planning applications and Nazi death camps are deeply offensive, wholly disproportionate and serve only to trivialise the suffering of millions of victims,” they added.
Rotheram and Robinson expressed particular concern that the remarks were made by a member of a planning committee, which performs a quasi-judicial function.
They went on: “Language of this nature falls well short of the standards that the public should be entitled to expect.
“Invoking comparisons with Nazi death camps does nothing to advance debate and risks bringing both the planning process and local politics into disrepute.”
However, after Kemp stood by his comments, the pair sent another letter on Wednesday, calling for the councillors to be suspended.
“There is no meaningful comparison between their [those who perished at Auschwitz] suffering and football supporters travelling home from a match,” they wrote.
Responding, Kemp wrote: “It’s simple, Steve Rotheram and Liam Robinson are covering up their own incompetence.
“They’ve had eight years to provide safe conditions for fans to get to and from the station and they have failed totally to do that.”
He called the way Merseyrail officials talked about Evertonians and fans “absolutely disgraceful” and called his comparison to Auschwitz “apt”.
And Moloney said: “Richard Kemp talked in similar terms and I was following on from that and I stand by that. The language used was about corralling; the whole concept seemed to be [de]humanising.
“I’m surprised they [Merseyrail] haven’t apologised for the way they talked about people. I’m disappointed they haven’t taken the point on board.
“I would say perhaps if I’ve gone too far and if I’ve offended anyone I apologise for that but the language and the attitude of it, I stand by that.”
Councillor Carl Cashman, leader of the Liberal Democrat group in the council, said he would not remove the whip from either of his colleagues, despite repeated calls for him to do so.
He stated that, while he would not have used such language himself, he understood where the emotion had come from, adding that the fan zone at Sandhills had been dubbed a “cattle pen” by the people of Liverpool.
Marc Levy, the Jewish Leadership Council external affairs manager for the North West, North Wales and West Midlands, said: "This is a deeply offensive and breathtakingly thoughtless comparison, minimising the horrors of the Holocaust.
“Such remarks fall far below the standards that we expect of elected representatives and must be publicly rejected by the national Liberal Democrat leadership."
And David Coleman, administrator of Allerton synagogue, said: “It’s absolutely despicable that they could use that sort of language and to not apologise shows a lack of understanding of what the Jewish community has been through and is going through now.
“I would have thought Richard Kemp would know better… he understands the community well and would have known he would upset people.”
Kemp told the JC: “I have been a member of Liverpool City Council for 44 years. During that time no councillor has been to more events with the Jewish community than I have.
“In the planning committee I was appalled at the complacency of the City Council and Merseytravel in dealing with a dangerous situation at Sandhills station…I raised the Auschwitz metaphor because I really believe that the trains are bringing people into a dangerous station and we have been lucky not to have deaths and injuries at that station and in the wider area.
“I believe that politicians from another party are trying to use my choice of language to excuse themselves from blame for the dangers they have created.
“I am sorry if my anger and language have upset people. It was not my intention. I will continue to stand with the Jewish Community of Liverpool as I have done for more than four decades when they need friends in the wider community.”
The JC has contacted Moloney and the Liberal Democrats for comment.
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