Andy Burnham fails to issue apology after being confronted over Traveller children left 'terrified' by police

Andy Burnham failed to issue an apology to the Gypsy and Traveller communities after claims children were left “terrified” by an "army of police screaming into their faces” last weekend.

The Greater Manchester Mayor was grilled during a BBC Radio Manchester phone-in today (November 28) about the chaotic scenes on Saturday which saw groups of youngsters turned away from the city centre.

A caller named Chris demanded an apology from the Mayor for the behaviour of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) - but Mr Burnham did not say sorry and said GMP had acted on intelligence about anti-social behaviour.

READ MORE: What really happened in town on Saturday afternoon

“Everyone has got a place in our city region as long as people are coming to abide by the law and enjoy themselves,” the Mayor said. “The incident you are referring to there was some intelligence that there was some intent to cause anti-social behaviour.

“We are looking into the handling of incident at the weekend, but it would apply to anybody, we don’t discriminate, it’s not just because there are people from a certain community or group coming, the issue is what is the intent of the people that are coming.”

During the incident on Saturday, videos emerged showing young Gypsies and Travellers being put onto trains after GMP signed a dispersal order allowing them to turn people away from much of the city centre.

Chris the caller on BBC Radio Manchester claimed the treatment of the Irish Gypsy community is the “last acceptable face of racism,” and said that Manchester has no permanent Traveller site.

Mr Burnham explained that councils around the region work closely with the Traveller community, and that police would have been criticised if they did nothing and disorder had broken out.

He added: “It’s absolutely not that we consider it the last acceptable form of racism, certainly not, in fact if you look at our ten councils they work closely with the Traveller community to provide designated sites.

“I come back to the point, and it would apply for any group, if there is intelligence about anti-social behaviour or disorder we will act on it. That was the intelligence the police had, they are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t, what do they do? They’re in that position where they get criticised if they do intervene and criticised if they don’t.”