Community leaders across Bedford Borough have hit back at “recklessly dangerous” comments about Queen’s Park made on a podcast hosted by controversial local businessman and football club owner, Peter McCormack.
In a podcast episode broadcast on 28 August, divisive far-right figure Tommy Robinson (real name, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) claimed the heroin supply for Bedford is “controlled” by the Muslim community of Queen’s Park. He was not asked for any evidence to support his claim.
Following the broadcast, the Bedford Independent spoke with various local leaders about their reaction to what was said. None of them wanted to comment on record, saying they didn’t want to “add oxygen to the conversation”.
As a newspaper, we have off-the-record conversations with local leaders and community groups about a number of things, and the impact of Robinson’s comments kept coming up in conversation.
Comments peaked this week and were given on the record after Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey spoke out about comments made at Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” march last weekend (13 September).
Writing to Prime Minister Keir Starmer; Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservatives; and Nigel Farage, leader of Reform, Mr Davey called on them to ‘sanction’ Elon Musk for ‘deliberately spreading misinformation, stoking anger and encouraging violence’.
Mr Davey says his comments at the march represent an ‘attempt to endanger public safety and meddle in our politics’ and that it ‘must be met with clarity and resolve.’
Read: Ed Davey’s letter to other political leaders
Proud community
Bedford Borough Labour Group, which has two of the three councillors in Queen’s Park, said Robinson’s comments have shown him to be someone who thrives on “division and hate”.
“Queen’s Park is a diverse, resilient, and proud community. Freedom of speech is vital, but it does not protect lies or incitement to hatred,” said the group’s spokesperson.
“Robinson has once again shown himself to be an attention seeker who thrives on division and hate. We condemn these reckless comments in the strongest possible terms and stand united with all residents against any attempts to divide our town.”
Bedford and Kempston MP Mohammad Yasin (Labour), a resident of Queen’s Park for over 33 years, spoke to us about how the Queen’s Park community represents a Bedford Borough where “multicultural, multi-faith communities live together in peace, harmony, and mutual respect”.
Read: We are Bedford and we won’t be intimidated but there’s still work to be done
“My wife and I raised our children here, all of whom attended the local schools, and it’s been a joy to know their friends and families over the years.”
Mr Yasin said that it was his love of Bedford that led him to become a community councillor and then an elected councillor for Queen’s Park ward, serving the community and holding the portfolio for adult social care altogether for 13 years.
He adds it has been an “honour” to be MP for Bedford and Kempston for the past eight years.
“Mutual respect”
“I will never take the faith people have put in me for granted. I know, like any town, Bedford isn’t perfect, there are pockets of crime and antisocial behaviour,” he added.
“Violent incidents and drug dealing happen here just as they do in towns and cities across the country and indeed wherever people live in large communities.
“But the Bedford I’ve known across the decades, the one I see every day as a dad and as an MP when I’m out in the community week after week, is something really special.
“I’m proud that Bedford is a multicultural, multi-faith community where people live together in peace, harmony, and mutual respect, a place where residents come together to make our town better, where we support one another through challenges, and where we work side by side to solve problems.
“At the countless community events I’ve attended for nearly 20 years, I’ve met wonderful, talented, and kind people who give their time to make our town a welcoming place to raise a family.
“Whether it’s faith groups cooking meals or delivering groceries to those who couldn’t leave home during the pandemic, or volunteers running grassroots football leagues for our children every weekend.
“Most people just want to live their lives calmly. Our town isn’t perfect, name me one that is, but we work together to make it better, striving always for a peaceful, tolerant, and harmonious Bedford.
“That’s the Bedford and Kempston I know and recognise – the one I work every day for and for which I’m honoured to serve”.
Read: Bedford’s Everyday Heroes come from all communities across the Borough
“Oxygen of publicity”
But it wasn’t just those directly connected to Queen’s Park who condemned the comments.
The Mayor of Bedford, Tom Wootton (Conservative), also expressed frustration. “All communities in Bedford make a positive contribution to our Borough and attempts to unfairly single out any group risk damaging cohesion,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bedford Borough Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Henry Vann criticised the comments and added that they shouldn’t have even been broadcast.
“Racism has no place in Bedford Borough. Mr Yaxley Lennon makes wild accusations without any evidence.
“It is simply not credible to suggest that one community ‘controls’ this trade, and indeed it is dangerous to give such unsubstantiated claims the oxygen of publicity.”
These comments were echoed on a follow-up episode of McCormack’s show, designed to give balance, broadcast this week (Tuesday), when he spoke to another figure some believe to be controversial, journalist and Bedfordian Dilly Hussain.
He argued with McCormack that more should have been done to challenge what he called “recklessly dangerous” claims.
“I think people just thought Peter McCormack, chairman of a Football Club in Bedford, [who] has a cafe, he’s a man of Bedford, [he] wants to see Bedford ‘be great again’, doesn’t want to shit on Bedford, but allowed someone to basically talk about an entire community that’s part of Bedford.”
McCormack challenged Hussain’s view, replying that he did respond to Robinson, saying that Bedford has more of a problem with county lines (drugs coming from other areas) and different types of drugs.
Dilly, however, argued that McCormack should have pushed back more or even asked, “Tommy, where did you get that from? It’s a huge bloody statement to make.”
What the police say
People arrested or convicted of a crime are not categorised by their religion, so many argue the claim that religious groups control certain crimes is, at best, ‘anecdotal’.
The Bedford Independent therefore requested data from Bedfordshire Police by geographical location.
We asked them to provide recorded drug offences in Queen’s Park, the whole of Bedford Borough and the whole of Bedfordshire for the last five years.
Due to the way their data is recorded, Bedfordshire Police could not provide data before the start of this financial year, or with drug classification, without a freedom of information (FOI) enquiry, which can take up to 28 days to respond.
In the interests of getting this article published in a timely manner, we have accepted the stats they have given us. But the Bedford Independent will also be submitting an FOI and will report on the results of these findings as soon as they are made available to us.
Bedfordshire Police tells us that in the financial year to date (1 April to 15 September), there have been the following drug offences (including all possession and supply related crimes, not drilled down to drug classification) in the following locations:
- Queen’s Park: 27
- Bedford Borough: 295
- Bedfordshire: 1,002
Bedfordshire Police’s Head of Intelligence, Serious and Organised Crime Detective Chief Superintendent Duncan Young also told us, “Our work to identify, disrupt and deter those involved in drug supply helps us to crack down on the wider harm and violence this type of crime brings to all of our communities.
“We maintain a drug market profile that draws on key data across all partnership agencies to apply a whole-systems approach to tackling the threat, availability and impact of drugs within the whole county.
“Historically, we know that drug crime is the greatest driver of serious and organised crime in Bedfordshire, with street-level violence, exploitation and subsequent ASB and theft offences all having drugs as their root cause.
“We have had a number of recent successes, including the identification and destruction of a large-scale cannabis factory at a Bedford nightclub, and disruption to an organised crime group’s use of the postal system to courier Class A drugs.
“Our efforts to crack down on drug crime also include raising awareness amongst young people and parents to the dangers of county lines drug crime and continuing to urge residents to report any concerns or suspicious activity to us.
“Any information could be crucial in helping us target those who threaten the safety of our county.”
We asked Mr McCormack for further comment but he was unable to respond by the time of publication.
