Attempts to capitalise on the incident by far-right actors were met with revulsion in the community
~ punkacademic ~
Liverpool Football Club’s celebrations of their twentieth English league title on Monday 26th May were marred after a car drove into a number of fans gathered on the route of the players’ bus parade on Water Street in the city centre. 79 fans were injured, with the youngest reported to be nine years old. Though some of the injured were initially in a serious condition, all those remaining in hospital are reported to be stable and improving.
Paul Doyle, a 53-year-old former Royal Marine from the West Derby area of the city, has been charged with grievous bodily harm with intent.
Numerous eyewitness videos posted to social media appeared to show a grey people carrier enter Water Street and come into contact with Liverpool fans with the vehicle apparently reversing into one fan before heading off at speed down the road, striking a number of fans including children. Merseyside Fire and Rescus reported having to lift the vehicle from a number of victims.
Online reaction beyond Liverpool, from far-right figures and others, attempted to make political capital out of the incident, with Tommy Robinson posting on X that it was a ‘suspected terror attack’. Far-right accounts circulated images of individuals with no relation to the incident, mirroring recent reactions to incidents elsewhere in the UK—including the Southport murders last year.
Such attempts were met with revulsion by members of the community, with Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotherham condemning ‘nefarious groups’ spreading disinformation in an interview with BBC Radio 4. The police were quick to rule out terrorism and release Doyle’s ethnicity.
Liverpool FC and Everton FC both issued statements expressing their support for those affected by Monday’s incident, and reactions in the city displayed the solidarity and mutual support in respect of off-field incidents which have characterised the relationship between the two major football clubs since the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, when Liverpool and Everton fans stood shoulder to shoulder in the campaign for justice for the victims.
Already on Saturday 24th, singers Mel C and Tom Grennan had appeared at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sefton Park in the south of the city wearing Liverpool and Everton jerseys numbered 9 and 7 respectively, in a tribute to the 97 fans who lost their lives as a result of the 1989 disaster.
Liverpool FC manager Arne Slot, the recipient of the LMA and LMA Premier League Manager of the Year awards in his debut season with the club, missed the ceremony on Tuesday evening out of respect for those affected, whilst Liverpool FC’s staff party scheduled for Tuesday was postponed.
The parade, organised to celebrate Liverpool FC’s twentieth (and English record-tying) league championship, was an unprecedented event in Liverpool with estimates of between 750,000 and a million fans lining the route which began at Allerton Maze in the south of the city before ending in the City Centre.
With the Reds’ most recent previous title being won in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the parade was seen as an opportunity for fans to celebrate in a fashion they had been denied by public health restrictions five years earlier, and a carnival mood pervaded during the day despite damp weather conditions.
A fundraiser has been established for those injured in Monday’s events, and has received a £10,000 donation from former Liverpool player and current pundit Jamie Carragher’s 23 Foundation, in addition to £5,000 from Football for Change, a charity which has established relationships with both the LFC Foundation and Everton in the Community.
Details on how to donate to the Liverpool Spirit Appeal are available here
Top image: LiverpoolFC on Facebook