Two councillors in Liverpool, one a former lord mayor, have apologised after comparing a railway station's football matchday operations with Nazi Germany’s concentration camps.
Liberal Democrat councillors Richard Kemp, Liverpool’s lord mayor from 2024 to 2025, and Pat Moloney spoke during Tuesday’s city council planning meeting on proposed changes to Sandhills station, which serves Everton FC’s new Hill Dickinson stadium.
The Merseyrail station has proved controversial since Everton’s move to their new waterfront stadium last year, struggling to cope with the matchday capacity, and the rail operator plans to improve the safety of its queuing system with suggested "corralling areas" and "sterile zones".
The proposals were criticised by several councillors, as first reported by the Liverpool Echo. Cllr Moloney said the scheme was "like something out of a horrific death camp in Nazi Germany" and Cllr Kemp compared the current waiting system with "a greeting area at Auschwitz".
The Liverpool City Region’s Labour mayor Steve Rotheram and city council leader Liam Robinson wrote to Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey calling for the party whip to be removed from both councillors and for the party to investigate.
“This kind of hyperbole has no place in public discourse”, the Labour politicians wrote.
They added: “The men, women and children who perished at Auschwitz were victims of one of the worst crimes in human history. There is no meaningful comparison between their suffering and football supporters travelling home from a match.
“The fact that two members of the same planning committee appear to have made such remarks during the same discussion raises concerns that go beyond an isolated lapse of judgement by a single individual.”
The city’s Jewish community criticised Cllr Kemp and Cllr Moloney’s comments.
The former lord mayor initially told the Echo he stood by his language, while Cllr Moloney said he would apologise if he had caused offence.
In a joint statement on Wednesday evening, the senior Lib Dems said neither of them “would ever knowingly cause hurt to that community”.
They wrote: “As councillors, we have given decades of service to this city, and both have a long record of standing alongside Liverpool's Jewish community and speaking out against antisemitism whenever it has reared its head here.
“Neither of us would ever knowingly cause hurt to that community, and if the specific language used on Tuesday, in the heat of a debate about the treatment of football supporters, has caused genuine offence, we are both sorry for that, and say so without qualification.”
The councillors said they were still “making a serious point about a serious failure” with regard to the station and its preparedness for serving a football stadium.
They added: “Nine years after the council knew a new stadium was coming, Merseyrail and the city region are still proposing to ‘corral’ and ‘sterile-zone’ fans like cattle at Sandhills station, with no proper plan for parking, taxis, or disabled access.
“That is Steve Rotheram and Liam Robinson's failure, with Evertonians paying the price for every matchday.”
A final decision on the plans has been put on hold for a follow up meeting.
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “Both Richard and Pat have apologised for their choice of language.
“They understand the offence that has been caused and accept the language they used was insensitive.
“The Nazis’ systematic extermination of millions of Jewish people was the most horrific crime against humanity and it should always be treated as such.”
