The decision to clear Ricky Jones of encouraging violent disorder has not gone down well with many senior politicians. Footage of the suspended Labour councillor went viral last August after he suggested that far-right protesters should have their throats slit. Jones, 58, drew his finger across his throat and called demonstrators ‘disgusting Nazi fascists’. On Friday, jurors found him not guilty after just half an hour of deliberations. Many were quick to contrast it to the Lucy Connolly case, whereby the wife of a Tory politician was jailed for 31 months during the Southport riots after writing ‘set fire to all the… hotels [housing asylum seekers]… for all I care’.

Some senior Conservatives certainly see it this way. Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, made that comparison explicit,

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