Equalities campaigner Trevor Phillips confirmed for the first time he accused the city of Liverpool of “wallowing in victim status” while defending suspended Sun columnist Kelvin MacKenzie 's likening of Everton footballer Ross Barkley to a gorilla.
In a text the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission denied it was “sneaky” to send a supportive message to a controversial columnist.
Beleaguered MacKenzie published the sympathetic words to bolster his position after a clamour for his sacking from the newspaper.
“I agreed to allow a personal message to be made public because I think that if you're prepared to say something in private you should be prepared to stand by it in public. How is that 'sneaky'?” texted Phillips after I accused him of underhand behaviour in a Daily Mirror column.
“By all means pursue the vendetta with K MacK but my message had nothing to do with the Hillsborough tragedy – from which I reported live for ITV as the bodies were being taken away.”
MacKenzie made public a message from Phillips, holder of an honorary degree from Liverpool University, stating: “WTF? I have to confess I had no idea Barkley was a brother. Sad to see a great city wallowing in victim status. Unbelievable.”
The Sun columnist, editor of the paper when it wrongly blamed Liverpool fans under the fallacious headline “The Truth” for the the deaths of 96 supporters in the Hillsborough tragedy, maintains he was unaware one of Barkley's grandfathers was Nigerian.
MacKenzie had launched his attack on the eve of the 28 anniversary of Hillsborough after the midfielder was punched in a nightclub and he claimed the only other people in Liverpool who could earn £60,000 a week were drug dealers.
Next to pictures of the England international's eyes and those of a gorilla, The Sun senior journalist wrote that he was “certain not only are the lights not on, there is definitely nobody at home” and he had “a similar feeling when seeing a gorilla at the zoo”.
After printing the MacKenzie attack on Barkley, the paper subsequently accepted the piece was “wrong” and “unfunny” as it removed the online version while stressing there was “never any slur intended”.
MacKenzie insisted it was “beyond parody” to describe his comments a racist and that he and every fan he'd ever met believed Barkley to be white.
“The reality is that had I known of his family tree, I would never have made the comparison, but since I am a columnist and not a researcher on Who Do You Think Your Are? I didn't know, and have yet to meet anybody who did, including the Sun's sports' editor,” he wrote in The Spectator.
MacKenzie added “a number of MPs” shared Phillips' view and said another message, from Tory Andrew Mitchell, declared: “On behalf of all gorillas, I'd like to make a complaint.”
Phillips' troubles may just be starting, however, after confirmation MacKenzie's account of the text was accurate.
Ex-Liverpool player Stan Collymore tweeted at the time: “I'd like to see the text before throwing Trevor Phillips under the bus. MacKenzie is a proven liar after all. But, if he said it...curtains.”
After a 27-year fight for justice, an inquest ruled in April last year the 96 Liverpool fans at Hillsborough were unlawfully killed .
After the MacKenzie column, Merseyside clubs Everton and Tranmere Rovers followed Liverpool and banned Sun journalists .
The police are examining a complaint of “racial slurs” against MacKenzie from Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson.