Richard Tice says males in Manchester airport bust-up have to be prosecuted

Richard Tice has told the Home Secretary that the men arrested in Manchester airport bust-up with police must be prosecuted ‘to the fullest extent of the law’.

The Reform MP has written a public letter to Yvette Cooper claiming that the ‘assailants hospitalised three police officers and created such severe problems that the officers were compelled to use tasers to subdue them’.

During the incident police arrested four men on suspicion of affray and assaulting an emergency worker, before releasing them on bail.

Mr Tice is the latest politician to wade in on the situation, which has been making headlines over the past week after a video showing the police’s response to the alleged assault of its officers went viral online.

The extraordinary footage showed one officer kick and stamp on the head of a man who was lying face down on the floor, with a woman kneeling beside him. 

The video also appeared to show him strike a second man, and it has prompted a public outcry with two nights of demonstrations in Manchester and Rochdale. 

Demonstrators gathered outside the mayor’s office and claimed the shocking videos showed Greater Manchester Police (GMP) was racist and called for it to be ‘defunded’.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog said it had notified the GMP officer that he is facing a criminal probe for assault. 

He has also been served with a disciplinary notice that he is being investigated for potential gross misconduct for alleged breaches of police professional standards. 

The backlash against the alleged ‘brutality’ showcased in the video has led some politicians, such as Keir Starmer to comment that he understood the concern the public ‘rightly have’ over the footage.

But Reform UK Deputy Leader Mr Tice’s letter has placed the blame for the incident firmly on the shoulders of the men involved – not the police.

In a letter, which has been shared on his social media, he wrote: ‘This level of violence against law enforcement is alarming and must be met with a strong and unequivocal response. 

‘Anything short of prosecuting the perpetrators to the fullest extend of the law sets a dangerous precedent that police officers cannot defend themselves from violent attacks.’

The new MP for Boston and Skegness added: ‘Moreover, a lack of consequences in this case would demonstrate that the police are willing to bow to the pressure of rioters. 

‘It is crucial to show that this is not the case and that the rule of law will be upheld regardless of the circumstances. 

‘Ensuring accountability for such actions will reinforce the message that law enforcement agencies will not be intimidated or undermined by violent behaviour.’

Mr Tice, who was previously a member of the European Parliament from 2019 until the UK left in 2020, continued: ‘I urge you to confirm that you will actively encourage and support GMP in pursuing charges against the assailants for assault and any other laws they have broken. 

‘It is crucial that we send a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated and that our police officers are protected and respected.’

Mr Tice is not the only Reform MP to weigh in on the issue, Lee Anderson posted on social media site X that the ‘vast majority of decent Brits would applaud this type of policing’. 

Mr Anderson also told the BBC’s Politics Live: ‘The message I’m getting loud and clear from my constituents is that they are fed up with seeing police dancing around rainbows, and being nice to people and running off from rioters. 

‘They want the police to do their job. And I think these police yesterday should be commended. In fact, I would give them a medal.’ 

However Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has not replied to the letter yet, but said previously she shared the ‘deep concern’ and ‘widespread distress’ over the video. 

Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham described the video as ‘very disturbing’ but called for calm.

He urged the public not to rush to judgement on the incident, telling Radio Manchester that it was ‘more complicated’ that had been portrayed.

On Friday evening the Chief Constable of GMP released a statement laying blame on investigation constraints as to why bodycam footage of the incident on Tuesday has not been released.

His statement read: ‘It is a source of profound regret that this week’s incident at Manchester Airport has caused shock and upset in some of our communities. 

‘Throughout this week, senior officers have been meeting with community representatives to ensure their voices are heard and this will continue – we are at one with the best instincts of those engaged in appealing for calm.

He added: ‘Whilst we are constrained in publicly releasing further information or footage about the incident due to the conduct and criminal investigations, we are committed to providing the fullest practical assistance to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.’

The full circumstances of the incident are in the process of being investigated, but it has emerged the chaos is now alleged to have followed a mid-air row involving some of the men’s mother.

Family sources claimed Fahir and Amaad Khan were defending their mother when they were taken into custody by police on Tuesday after she arrived from Pakistan.

The mother was allegedly involved in a row during the flight with a male passenger – with insiders alleging that while she was picking up her luggage in Terminal 2, the same man pushed her with his trolley and made racist comments towards her.

It is claimed that the mother later pointed him out to her sons, and one then confronted the man – before a physical altercation that saw the police called.

Police then used cameras to follow the suspects as they left for the car park, with the brothers arrested close to the pay stations. 

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, sources said the family claim they walked away and were confronted by armed police near the ticket machines, during which one officer allegedly struck the mother in the face.

This claim has not been independently verified, with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) not releasing any bodycam footage of this part of the encounter so far and no video shot by passersby released on social media. 

GMP claims after the initial encounter its officers were assaulted and ‘punched to the ground’ with three left needing hospital treatment including one female officer who had a broken nose.

No footage of this part of the incident has been released online either, with the first videos showing Fahir lying on the ground with his hands behind his back and Amaad sat on a chair with his hands above his head.

Multiple angles of the incident after this point have since been released online, with 19-year-old Fahir seen being kicked in the face and stamped on the head by a police officer, before he and his brother are hauled away by police.

As his mother tries to protect him, Amaad is pulled from the bench where he was sitting and apparently kicked and hit by the same officer. 

Onlookers can be heard shouting ‘stop kicking people’ and ‘you’re on camera’ before another group is confronted by police.

Amar Rafiq, who filmed one of the clips, said he was ‘gobsmacked’ by what he witnessed.

‘Everyone was worried about themselves, they started panicking and rushing away, they feared they would be attacked,’ he told the Mail.

But Mr Burnham stressed that ‘there had already been a serious incident’ before the attempted arrests ‘escalated’, adding that it was a situation which people ‘don’t see in the clip’. 

There were issues ‘on both sides’, he added. 

The issue caused hundreds of protesters to block traffic and hold up Black Lives Matter placards on Thursday night after footage of a GMP firearms officer kicking a teenager in the head ‘like a football’ sparked allegations of gratuitous violence. 

Mr Burnham said in a press conference yesterday afternoon: ‘People spoke of the family’s appeal for calm. It was echoed in the room and I am today amplifying that message as loudly and clearly as I can so that everyone hears it.

‘Lots of people this week have had their say on events here and it’s important now that those same people hear what people in Greater Manchester want to happen next.

‘What they want is a process that is able to proceed on the basis, as I said before, of being fair to everyone, rigorous, swift and has input from Greater Manchester communities.

‘That has got to be the priority now so that the full facts can be established and we can get to the full truth of what happened, that’s in everyone’s interest.

‘What people here don’t want – and I heard this very clearly in the room this morning – is politicians without possession of the facts exploiting the situation for their own political agenda with zero regard for the effect on the ground in communities in Greater Manchester.’

Earlier, the teenager’s controversial solicitor Akhmed Yakoob described the incident as an ‘attempted assassination, the joint enterprise assassination of the young boys by the police officers’.

Speaking to LBC radio yesterday morning, Mr Yakoob added: ‘That is concerning because if police officers who are meant to protect us are going around trying to kill people. I mean, how are the public going to feel safe?’

Questioned by presenter Nick Ferrari over his use of the word ‘assassination’, Mr Yakoob said: ‘Kill, yeah. They were threatened to kill, one of the boys were threatened to get killed by a police officer.’

Mr Yakoob also posted a video on Instagram, saying that he would be meeting the IOPC, adding that there would be ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ and he was ‘confident that justice will prevail’.

MailOnline understands that Greater Manchester Police is not commenting on any specific claims at this stage due to the ongoing IOPC investigation.

Mr Yakoob – who is nicknamed the TikTok lawyer and earlier this year unsuccessfully stood to be the mayor of the West Midlands on a pro-Gaza platform – previously claimed that his client was ‘fighting for his life’ in hospital.

The lawyer said a CT scan had revealed that Fahir Muhammed Amas had a ‘cyst on the brain’. However, he admitted he did not know whether it was linked to his violent arrest.

Yesterday newly-elected Rochdale Labour MP Paul Waugh confirmed that while the family members had been taken to hospital, they were both now at home.

Up to 400 protesters staged a sit-in in the centre of Manchester on Thursday night, causing severe disruption to the city’s tram network. 

Many held BLM banners with one speaker saying the incident was ‘another reason’ why the group wanted to defund Greater Manchester Police.

Yesterday Mr Yakoob called for the officer who kicked Fahir in the head to be charged with attempted murder – and said Fahir had lost all faith in the police since the incident.

Mr Yakoob said all the officers seen in the video should be suspended and even face criminal prosecutions under the joint enterprise law.

Speaking to the SWNS press agency, he said: ‘There may have been an altercation before, but nothing justifies an attempted murder. They need to be arrested. If they were civilians, if they weren’t police officers, they’d be arrested.

‘A woman police officer threatened to taser an innocent bystander because they were filming what her colleagues were doing. If you went on a night out with three or four people and you did that to someone, you’d be on remand right now. It’s joint enterprise.

‘There has to be arrests otherwise people should step down. Arrests have to be made otherwise the public will lost trust in the police completely.’ 

He added that he was in the process of launching legal action against the police – and if the Crown Prosecution Service refuses to prosecute, then he will look at a private prosecution.

Mr Yakoob said Amaad appears to be physically fine after the ordeal, but the whole family ‘has been left traumatised’. Family and friends were supporting their mother, who he claims was also injured during the fracas.

He also revealed the brother’s six-year-old nephew – whose father is a serving police officer – was at the arrivals hall to greet his grandmother and witnessed the incident.

Mr Yakoob added: ‘They were at the airport with their six year old nephew, the police officer’s son, he saw this.

‘He used to go round proudly telling everybody his dad was a police officer. He’s now seen his grandmother and his uncles assaulted by his father’s colleagues.

‘She’d just returned from Pakistan after two years, what a welcome home she’s had. She herself was a victim of assault, she has a black eye as a result of the actions of the police. The boys were waiting at the airport for her. She’s very shocked.

Dal Babu, a senior former Metropolitan Police officer, has claimed racism played a ‘significant part’ in the incident.

And Mr Yakoob said the racial undertones of the incident could not be overlooked, but appealed for calm amid rising tensions.

He added: ‘We don’t want any violence towards these officers, two wrongs don’t make a right. We can’t tar everybody with the same brush.

‘I don’t like to play the race card, but it’s clear South Asian men have been targeted by the police, particularly men of Pakistani heritage.

‘Fahir is at home resting. He is seeing a neurologist today. He has a cyst on the brain. The message from him is that he has lost all trust in the police and he’s scared for his safety.

Meanwhile Labour MP for Rochdale Mr Waugh revealed he had met the family at their home and said it was ‘clear from talking to them that they are traumatised’.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘Lots of people saw that video clip and were really distressed by it, the police themselves said it was a distressing clip. But just imagine if that was your brother, that was your son in that video – and you can imagine just how distraught they are.’

Mr Waugh added that the family had two priorities – the first being the ‘health and wellbeing of their family immediately, healing, getting better’; and the second being ‘the need for justice not just to be done but seen to be done’.

He said the family were also ‘really heartened by the early engagement’ of the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Mr Waugh continued: ‘The family, the other strong message they wanted me to give people, is they have no political agenda whatsoever.

‘They’re not interested in political violence, they’re not going to attend any of these protests, and they wanted me to issue an appeal for calm among the community, all different types of communities in Rochdale.

‘We’ve had a history of unfortunate division within our town and we do not want to go back to those days.

‘And they wanted through me to make that absolutely clear. Their agenda is simply to find justice after this incident. And there’s no political agenda whatsoever.

‘More importantly, they’re acutely aware that there are extremists of all sides who are keen to hijack this event and use it for their own ends. The family are not interested in that at all.’ 

Mr Waugh said the family members had been taken to hospital, with one them taken for another scan – but they were now at home.

He added: ‘I’m hoping that they’re on the mend, but obviously the after-effects of an incident like this are difficult to assess immediately at the time.’

Mr Waugh added that he met with the Greater Manchester Police assistant chief constable to ‘look at some of the footage and to get some of the full facts’.

He continued: ‘It’s clear that this is a complex, fast-moving incident but obviously there is no justification whatsoever for what we’ve seen and I think the police have made that clear, that’s why this officer has been suspended. But we’ve got to let the independent process follow its due course.’

Mr Waugh added: ‘There’s also things that happened off camera which there need to be witness statements gathered for. It’s really important that the full evidence is seen, because that’s only fair to all the parties involved.’

One family friend from Rochdale said she had spoken to the family and ‘they could not stop crying’, reported the Manchester Evening News.

She said: ‘They are lovely boys that do charity work and community work and fairs with kids. They are people you would trust with your whole heart. That’s the kind of lads they are, they’re not criminals.’

On Fahir, she said: ‘He’s only 19, he’s just a baby. He’s not in a good way and nobody deserves that. After watching it I haven’t slept, it just kept going round and round in my head as it would for any mother. His mum is traumatised. They are asking for everyone to pray.’

Muhammad Aziz, who referred to himself as Fahir’s uncle, told the crowd: ‘What’s happened to one of my nephews is absolutely shocking, it is absolutely disgusting. A lad who went to pick up his mum who had come back from holiday was abused brutally.’

Mr Aziz later added that Fahir’s father was ‘very upset as any father would be upset’, adding: ‘Especially seeing those scenes on social media each time he goes through that it must be very shocking. They’re traumatised.

‘There needs to be a criminal investigation and that police officer should be behind bars. We need an apology and accountability so when people go into the police force in the future they know not to be heavy handed.’

During the protest last night, one banner read: ‘Serve and protect means GMP will stamp on heads.’ Chants of ‘No justice, no peace, no racist police’ were shouted by the crowd.

Among the protesters was Sammy Azam, 58, from Nottingham, who described the actions of the officer as ‘deplorable’ and ‘unacceptable’.

Shaiiye Khan, 39, from Manchester, claimed: ‘If you give the police too much power they will just abuse it. They’ve been doing it for years.’

However, there were calls for caution about condemning the officer at the centre of the storm before the full facts of exactly what led up to the furious confrontation have been revealed.