A fuller version of Bernie Grant's quotation is
"The youths around here believe the police were to blame for what happened on Sunday and what they got was a bloody good hiding."
His comments brought swift denunciation from the Labour Party leadership and the then Conservative Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, called him "the high priest of conflict" and several British newspapers dubbed him "Barmy Bernie".
He claimed that he was merely explaining to a wider audience what the feeling on the estate was like. There is conflicting information whether Grant condemned the violence of the rioters the following day