Councillor who said right-wing activists' throats should be cut is cleared
Ricky Jones, 58, then a councillor for Dartford, Kent, was filmed speaking at a rally at Walthamstow in east London on August 7 last year.
While talking about the protesters and rioters who took to the streets after the Southport murders — which were incorrectly blamed on asylum seekers — video showed Jones drawing a finger across his throat.
'They are disgusting Nazi fascists. We need to cut all their throats and get rid of them all,' Jones said at the rally.
The video of the rally went viral, before Jones was arrested on August 8.
Jones, who was also a full-time official of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association union at the time, did not dispute what he had said but denied one charge of encouraging violent disorder.
He was suspended by the Labour Party a day after the incident. Jones claimed during the trial that his comments to the rally did not refer to far-right protesters involved in the Southport riots, but to those who had reportedly left National Front stickers on a train with razor blades hidden behind them.
A video was shown to the court in which Jones told the crowds: 'You've got women and children using these trains during the summer holidays. They don't give a shit about who they hurt.'
A jury at Snaresbrook crown court in London deliberated for just over half an hour before finding him not guilty on Friday.
Jones, who was seen mouthing 'thank you' at jurors, hugged his family and supporters and declined to comment on the verdict as he left the court.
The verdict was criticised by senior Conservative and Reform politicians. The former home secretary and Tory leadership candidate James Cleverly said the jury's decision to clear Jones was 'perverse'.
'This is unacceptable,' he wrote on X. '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.'
Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, also criticised the verdict as 'outrageous'.
During the trial, Ben Holt, prosecuting, told jurors that Jones, a father of four and a grandfather, had used 'inflammatory, rabble-rousing language in the throng of a crowd described as a tinderbox'.
He said Jones's speech had been amplified through a microphone and speakers and had taken place 'in a setting where violence could readily have been anticipated'.
Jones 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, who said he was on the left of the Labour Party, previously told the jury 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 the party.
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