Jess Phillips admits she could have phrased riots tweet ‘better’

Jess Phillips has said she “could have phrased” a tweet shared after gangs of men in balaclavas turned out in Birmingham “better”.

The Home Office minister wrote that “rumours have been spread that a far right group were coming and it was done entirely to get Muslim people out on the street to drive this content. It is misinformation being spread to create trouble” after masked men threatened a Sky reporter in Birmingham earlier in August.

Phillips’ post came after groups of men gathered outside a mosque in the Bordesley Green area following rumours that the far right were planning on targeting it.

Ms Phillips later said: “We felt it wasn’t real what was being told... that people were coming to harm them was undoubtedly to cause upset and fear and that’s exactly what it did.”