A suspended Labour councillor who called at an anti-racism rally for far-right activists’ throats to be cut has been found not guilty of encouraging violent disorder.
Ricky Jones, 58, used the phrase “disgusting Nazi fascists” in a speech about last summer’s far-right protests after the Southport murders, his trial at Snaresbrook crown court heard.
Even though Jones was acquitted by a jury, the decision has fuelled claims by leading Conservative and Reform politicians of a “two-tier” justice system.
A video showing Jones addressing a counter demonstration in Walthamstow in east London on 7 August last year went viral on social media after the protest.
The councillor, who was suspended from the Labour party after the incident, was filmed saying: “They are disgusting Nazi fascists. We need to cut all their throats and get rid of them all.” He also drew his finger across his throat as he spoke to the crowd.
After just over 30 minutes of deliberation on Friday, jurors found Jones not guilty of encouraging violent disorder.
Jones, who at the time was also employed as a full-time official for the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) union, was arrested on 8 August last year and interviewed by police.
Ben Holt, prosecuting, told the court previously that Jones used “inflammatory, rabble-rousing language in the throng of a crowd described as a tinderbox”.
He told jurors Jones’s speech was amplified through a microphone and speakers and took place “in a setting where violence could readily have been anticipated”.
Giving evidence, Jones said his comment did not refer to far-right protesters involved in the riots at the time, but to those who had reportedly left National Front stickers on a train with razor blades hidden behind them.
Before he made the comment, jurors were shown video where he said to crowds: “You’ve got women and children using these trains during the summer holidays. They don’t give a shit about who they hurt.”
He told the court he was “appalled” by political violence, adding: “I’ve always believed the best way to make people realise who you are and what you are is to do it peacefully.”
Jones had told the court that the riots had made him feel upset and angry and he felt it was his duty to attend counter-protests, despite being warned to stay away from such demonstrations by Labour.
Giving evidence in his defence, Jones’s friend Kevin Courtney, a retired teacher and former joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), told the court his language was out of character. “I had not heard him say those words or anything in any way similar to that,” Courtney told jurors.
James Cleverly, the shadow communities secretary, said the jury’s decision to clear Jones was “perverse”. Writing on X, he said: “This is unacceptable. Perverse decisions like this are adding to the anger that people feel and amplifying the belief that there isn’t a dispassionate criminal justice system.”
The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, claimed the jury’s decision showed that “the development of two-tier justice is becoming increasingly alarming”.
Like Reform, he contrasted Jones’s treatment with that of Lucy Connolly, the wife of a former Conservative councillor who was jailed for 31 months after pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred by calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire.
In a post on X, Philp said: “It is astonishing that Labour councillor Ricky Jones, who was caught on video calling for throats to be slit, is let off scot free – whereas Lucy Connolly got 31 months prison for posting something no worse.”
The Reform leader, Nigel Farage, posted: “This is another outrageous example of two-tier justice.”
Zia Yusuf, the head of Reform’s Trump-inspired Doge team, said in a video message: “Britain is now a country in which, if you have the correct regime political views, you can openly call for the death and murder of your political opponents, be caught on video doing so, and walk free as an innocent man at the end of your jury trial.”
Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, said claims of two-tier justice were wrong. He posted: “Ricky Jones was charged, pleaded not guilty & was prosecuted before a jury of 12 randomly selected British strangers and found Not Guilty Others pleaded Guilty & were sentenced accordingly – they too could have elected jury trial There’s nothing 2 tier about it.”
The Labour party has been approached for comment on whether it plans to end Jones’s suspension from the party.
