Douglass Murray faces accusations of Inciting Racial Hatred

Douglass Murray has recently found himself in hot water due to comments he made concerning the recent riots that took place across England and Northern Ireland.

Due to the recent riots across the UK, heavily motivated by racism and islamophobia, were brought by misinformation and racial hatred spread through social media platforms. The government has issued a swift and effective response to curbing these issues that stoked the unrest in England and Northern Ireland.

Early this week when addressing the nation the Prime Minister said,

"Anyone whipping up violence will face the full force of the law"

After an emergency Cobra meeting on Monday the Prime Minister further iterated.

"The criminal law applies online as well as offline"

Earlier this week we saw some of the first arrests for spreading misinformation materialise.

Social media accounts on sites such as X, formerly known as twitter, and Telegram circulated misinformation falsely claiming the suspect accused of murdering three young girls in Southport was an illegal refugee that arrived to the UK on a small boat named, Ali Al-Shakati.

On Thursday, 8th August, Cheshire Constabulary announced a 55 year old woman, Bonnie Spofforth, was arrested on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred (S19 of the Public Order Act 1986) and false communications (S179 Online Safety Act 2023).

She is currently being questioned in police custody.

Douglass Murray, a right wing commentator, has found himself a centre of allegations of inciting racial hatred online.

In an interview with John Anderson, on the topic of the then ongoing UK Riot, Murray said,

"If the army [is not] sent in, then the public will have to go in to sort things out themselves, and it'll be very very brutal."

"[On the riots targeting Muslims asylum seekers and refugees] And I think I know that the British soul is awakening and stirring with rage at what these people are doing. These people came into our house. Many of them broke into our house illegally. Many of them were never wanted here, and they have come here. They have betrayed all of our attempts at hospitality. They've spat in our faces, and bow they want to trample everything we have underfoot."

Various individuals took to social media to vocally condemn Murray's remarks.

Jonathan Portes, a professor of Economics at King's College London labelled the the remarks, "A very explicit call for violent and racist pogroms in the UK from Spectator "Associate Editor" Douglass Murray.

Former labour minster, Alastair Campbell, has also weighed in on the comments. He requested a condemnation from both Andrew Neil and Fraser Nelson, the Editor of the Spectator and has requested the police look at these comments.

Andrew Neil, editor of the Spectator, has responded to these condemnations of Murray attempting to make distance between these comments and the Spectator. He claimed that Murray is "not on the staff" and is "a freelance writer." He further highlighted that Murray did not write this for the Spectator or any of their books or podcasts.

LBC radio host, James O'Brien, has pressed, Andrew Neil on the nature of Murray's employment. He highlighted that Murray is an "Associate Editor" at the Spectator and further pushed Neil for a condemnation on Murray's words.

At the time of publication, neither Murray or any UK Police Service have made statements surrounding the discourse his controversial rhetoric has caused.