Political commentator Paul Hodges demanded “let me speak” as a debate about the Southport murders turned heated on .
, who murdered three girls at a dance class in Southport last July, TalkTV presenter Harry Cole discussed whether there was a cover up involving the suspect’s history and if it was an act of terror.
Matt Goodwin agreed there was a cover up involved, saying: “I think the vast majority of people in this country can smell a cover up and they smell hypocrisy and double standards because if you look at how has responded to previous attacks, this time around, we’ve had a refusal to release details to the public.
“It all adds up to a two-tier Keir narrative. Had this been related to the far-right, we all would have known about it within 10 minutes.”
He added: “This time around suddenly it’s different, like it was different with the rape gangs, like he won’t give us an enquiry on that. That’s why people are fed up with this Prime Minister.”
…
The debate between Matthew Goodwin and Paul Hodges turned heated (Image: Talk TV)
Hodges hit back at these claims, suggesting sharing the information about it being related to terror organisations could have been prejudicial.
Goodwin pointed out that tweeted about three previous attacks, declaring that they were about terrorism.
“This time around, his approach has been completely different. Finsbury Park, when the guy drove the van into the mosque. Within 18 minutes that was considered terrorism,” he said, adding: “This time around, suddenly different rules apply.”
Hodges explained: “Different rules apply because in those cases, the attacks themselves were deemed by the police and prosecuting authorities to be acts of terrorism and people were prosecuted under the terrorism act for those offences.
“In this case, that isn’t the case.”
Don’t miss…
Hodges demanded his co-star to “let me finish” (Image: TalkTV)
Later in the conversation, Goodwin remarked: “I don’t understand why you’re struggling with the idea that the system should have shared the information they had about this guy in the immediate aftermath of the attack.”
Explaining why this could have been detrimental, Hodges responded: “The Prime Minister was presented with one of those most horrific murders in this country’s history. The head of CPS told him not to release this information because there is a chance that could prejudice the trial.
“Our own lawyers also independently came up with their judgement – we could not publish this information because it was potentially prejudicial.”
Goodwin interjected as he attempted to continue, leading Hodges to raise his hand and demand: “Hold on. Let me finish. Let me finish.”
His co-star insisted: “There is a debate about that.” To which Hodges agreed: “Absolutely. There is a debate.”