Chris Philp embarrasses himself, again

Dim-witted shadow home secretary Chris Philp was furious today that Ricky Jones, a Labour councillor who called for far right activists’ throats to be cut at an anti-racism rally, had been found not guilty of encouraging violent disorder.

“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,” he wrote on X.

“The development of two tier justice is becoming increasingly alarming.”

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The government, he said, “must come forward with plans to ensure justice is handed out equally, regardless of the background or views of the perpetrator – but as far as I can see this Labour government seems to be quite happy with two tier justice”.

What Philp – increasingly Kemi Badenoch’s Chris Grayling – failed to acknowledge, though, is that Connolly, the wife of a former Conservative councillor who called for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire after the Southport attacks, pleaded guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred. Jones, on the other hand, was found not guilty of encouraging violent disorder by a jury, the traditional way of deciding guilt in England since the later Middle Ages. Perhaps Philp would prefer trial by social media?

His argument was undermined by, of all people, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who also posted on X: “This is self-evidently not an example of two-tier justice as this Councillor was cleared by a jury. Lucy Connolly offered a guilty plea so did not have a jury trial, although she probably could have done had she pleaded not guilty.”

When even GB News host Rees-Mogg is saying it’s not two-tier justice, it’s probably not two-tier justice. Not for the first time, and – alas for Badenoch – almost certainly not the last, Philp has embarrassed himself.