A senior Liverpool councillor is under fire after comparing Sandhills to Auschwitz.
Cllr Richard Kemp made the remark in a meeting of the council’s planning committee that discussed potential expansion of the station’s queueing area.
The veteran Liberal Democrat accused Merseyrail bosses of treating Everton fans ‘like cattle’ as they prepared to travel to and from Hill Dickinson Stadium.
He also described the current queueing space set out for supporters at the station near Bramley-Moore Dock being ‘like the greeting area for Auschwitz’.
Cllr Kemp, who also previously served as the city’s Lord Mayor, was not the only Lib Dem councillor to make off-colour comments during the meeting.
Childwall representative Cllr Pat Moloney said the corralling zones at Sandhills were ‘like something out of a horrific death camp in Nazi Germany’.
The pair’s remarks have been seized upon by the largely Labour-run council, whose leader Liam Robinson has written to Sir Ed Davy over the incident.
Robinson along with Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram have written to the Lib Dems’ national leader calling for their suspensions pending investigation.
They wrote: “We respectfully ask: what is going on here?
“You have visited Auschwitz yourself and will know better than most why comparisons of this kind are so offensive and ill-judged.
“We have attached the planning drawings relating to the application. We will leave it to you to form your own judgement on whether such a comparison is remotely appropriate.
“Following Councillor Moloney’s reported remarks, we have been contacted by members of the Jewish community who expressed deep upset at the language that had been used.
“News that a second Liberal Democrat member of the same planning committee appears to have drawn a similar comparison will only deepen that distress.”
Cllr Kemp responded to the joint letter by accusing Rotheram and Robinson of ‘covering up their own incompetence’ over Sandhills’ future operations.
He added: “The way they (Merseyrail officials) are talking about Evertonians and fans is absolutely disgraceful and therefore the description I made is apt.”
Meanwhile Cllr Moloney told the Liverpool Echo that he would apologise if his remarks offended anyone but insisted he stood by the ‘attitude’ of his point.