An ex-equalities director has allegedly claimed Liverpool is a city ‘wallowing in victim status’.
The claim was attributed to former Equality and Human Rights Commission chairman Trevor Phillips by Kelvin Mackenzie in reviled one-time editor’s latest attack on the city.
Mackenzie made the comments in a piece for The Spectator magazine just weeks after he was suspended by The Sun for making disparaging comments about Ross Barkley.
The 70-year-old compared the Everton midfielder to a ‘gorilla at the zoo’ after he was subjected to an unprovoked attack in a Liverpool city centre bar earlier this month.
Published on the eve of the 28th anniversary of Hillsborough, Mackenzie’s comments prompted the Goodison Park club to ban The Sun from all club premises.
Merseyside Police are currently investigating Mackenzie’s ‘gorilla’ comments following claims that they were racially motivated due to Barkley’s Nigerian heritage.
But the man responsible for the Sun’s infamous coverage of Hillsborough, which falsely accused Liverpool fans of stealing from the dead, alleges Mr Phillips has backed him.
He claims a text from Phillips, who spent nine years as head of the EHRC between 2003 and 2012, said “WTF? I have to confess I had no idea Barkley was a brother. Sad to see a great city wallowing in victim status. Unbelievable.”
Mackenzie went on to boast that a number of MPs ‘shared’ his view and insisted that Sun readers disagreed with his suspension and that opinion was ‘running 100-1 in my favour’.
He also attempted to ridicule the city’s boycott of the tabloid newspaper, which has been in effect since April 1989 following its smears about the unlawful killings at Hillsborough.