Thurrock Labour councillor apologises for riots comments

Cllr Aaron Kiely, a Labour councillor on Thurrock, has apologised for comments he made on his Twitter account regarding the riots.

One tweet said:

“Difficult to dismiss people at these protests as 'violent thugs' - there are huge and complex problems with poverty and police racism.”

Others tweets made references to "institutionally racist", how "riots have often been flashpoints for social changes" and that "there are issues of over-policing." He also sent tweets with rumours of where rioting was taking place.

Cllr Kiely is involved in the Student Broad Left, an extreme left wing faction in the National Union of Students, whose response to the riots is: "No, justice, No peace."

This morning Cllr Kiely was celebrating that it was the campaigning efforts of the Student Broad Left "wot won it" for Labour in an Islington Council byelection held yesterday.