GB News presenter Eamonn Holmes has hit out after the Southport riots yesterday claiming that the police officers involved were "heroes two days ago."
Merseyside Police said eight officers suffered serious injuries after clashing with people causing unrest by setting cars alight and throwing bricks at a local mosque.
Speaking on GB News, Holmes asked "what's changed there?" As he fumed over the riots.
He said: "We had the police as heroes two days ago. What's changed there? What's wrong?
Riot police clashed with protestersGetty"What makes people in this country, whether you live in Leeds or whether you live in Southport, think they can attack police officers and burn police vans?
"My view is when you let it happen once it then becomes the standard thing, we'll just petrol bomb a police car here.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
"We'll do this. It's normal. It won't be a proper riot unless we burn something here.
"Now the thing is, the only thing that matters here is the families and those three poor children who have died. Also whoever perpetrated that, whoever carried it out and why, that's the only thing we've got to concentrate on.
"The rest of it is irrelevant. Why are the police now the victims of all of this?
"Why are we turning our attention and attacking police officers who aren't there to make sure that a killer of these three children wouldn't be apprehended and wouldn't be charged and wouldn't be sentenced? They're there to make sure that person is given all those penalties."
Eamonn Holmes fumed over the riots
GB News
Police officers had objects hurled at them by protesters following a vigil for Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.
Merseyside Police said “a large group of people – believed to be supporters of the English Defence League” – began to throw items such as bricks towards the mosque in the seaside town at around 7.45pm.
Officers put on helmets and riot gear after stones and bottles were launched at them and police vehicles were damaged and set on fire.
In a post on social media, the force said shops had been “broken into and looted”, adding that “those responsible will be brought to justice”.
A riot van was set on fire as the protests eruptedPAElsie’s mother, Jenni Stancombe, wrote on Facebook: “This is the only thing that I will write, but please please stop the violence in Southport tonight.
“The police have been nothing but heroic these last 24 hours and they and we don’t need this.”
Chairman of Merseyside Police Federation Chris McGlade said more than 50 officers had been hurt in a “sustained and vicious attack”.
He added: “Police officers are not robots. We are mothers and fathers. Sons and daughters. Husbands, wives and partners. We should be going home at the end of our shifts. Not to hospital.”