A Labour MP has blasted Greater Manchester Police as ‘the most inept force in the country’ after boy racers brought the M60 motorway to a standstill.
Andrew Gwynne, Labour MP for Denton & Reddish, made the comments as he criticised officers for their failure to prevent the stunt from going ahead, despite the event having been promoted on social media the day before.
A stretch of the M60 near Denton, Greater Manchester, was brought to a complete standstill by the car enthusiasts on Sunday as they clogged up all three lanes, with some pulling up on the hard shoulder.
A viral video clip, available below, showed drivers at the front of the jam jumping out of their cars to take photos, with one climbing on top of his Range Rover and another even using the central reservation to get better shots.
Labout MP Andrew Gwynne, pictured at a 2019 rally, criticised Greater Manchester Police, branding them ‘inept’ after boy racers brought the M60 motorway to a standstill on Sunday
Mr Gwynne described the incident as ‘a nightmare for all the residents after literally thousands of people descended on the town’.
He told the Manchester Evening News: ‘GMP must be seeking the award for the most inept police force in the country right now.’
Police have made no arrests but a man has been interviewed and remains under investigation.
The force described the scenes as ‘quite frankly unacceptable’, while insisting they had no prior knowledge of the event.
The group had been involved in a car meet – organised by YouTuber DMODeejay, who can be seen standing at the front of the crowd with his arms outstretched – attended by thousands over the weekend, where social distancing was completely abandoned.
Cruise organiser DMODeejay, a former sales manager, claimed subsequently the group only stopped to check he was okay as his car ‘overheated’, but thousands condemned the ‘dangerous’ and selfish’ actions on social media.
The car meeting, which started 73 miles away in Telford, Shropshire, was organised by YouTuber DMODeejay who can be seen, left, standing at the front of the crowd with his arms held wide while being filmed, as dozens of cars are forced to stop behind, right
The YouTuber, pictured, claims that the convoy stopped only because everyone was worried about him as his car overheated and wanted to show ‘support’
The car meeting, which started 73 miles away in Telford, Shropshire, was organised by the YouTuber, who said he knew ‘it was going to be a shutdown but a shutdown on a small scale’.
On his social media, the self confessed ‘qualified nutter’ claimed that 20,000 people had taken part in the two meets, including many young children, and had travelled between the two cities.
The video, which was originally posted to TikTok before being uploaded to Facebook by someone not part of the meet, has been lambasted by fellow car enthusiasts who slammed the crowd for giving the whole scene a ‘bad name’.
There was also criticism for the mother who filmed the stunt, even featuring her own children in the car, and bragged about what a ‘mad feeling it was to be part of’ the event.
The Facebook post read: ‘Typical UK car ‘enthusiasts’: blocking the motorway because its [sic] cool. So sick of all this entitled bulls**t attitude car people have.
‘I am massively into cars and understand the passion but these sort of actions give us all the bad views people have of us. Stop giving the general public more reasons to dislike us!’
DMO Deejay said: ‘I know people are saying ‘it was erratic, you shouldn’t have done it’, who knew it was going to be like that?
‘I never knew. I knew it was going to be a shutdown but a shutdown on a small scale. That was huge.
‘I’ve been working on my car since I bought it. The car is nearly where it needs to be but there are some niggly, little bits that need to be swapped over.
A number of drivers got out of their cars to take selfies on Sunday, left, while one man even precariously stood on the central reservation to get pictures
One driver even sat on top of a Range Rover while others stepped out to take selfies, left, as traffic spilled onto the hard shoulder, right
‘The radiator is blown and doesn’t work properly. I have no fan on the car and driving it 100 miles up the road to get it finalised, the car was overheating.
‘I pulled over and because we were in such a deep convoy, they all stopped too. At the time I wasn’t thinking about them, I was thinking my car was about to blow up, I needed to pull over.
‘By the time I looked back, there were more than 500 cars behind me, just stopped.
‘It was a moment, the support was unreal. They all wanted to make sure I was ok. It wasn’t planned.
‘I broke down. I let it cool down on the side of the road.’
But those watching the footage appeared unconvinced that the ‘hold up’ was anything other than deliberate.
One commenter said: ‘F***ing idiots. Hope they all get fines or points for being thick as f***.’
Another wrote: ‘I just saw a load of people in shiny modern things taking selfies and being a bunch of d***s.
‘I hope the police get hold of their details and fine them. What seriously was the point in that!’
A third added: ‘This is why people hate the car scene.’
Social media users slammed the car enthusiasts for their actions in a series of angry posts
The car meet caused severe delays not just on the M60 but also on the M67 and M66 due to the amount of traffic.
Greater Manchester Police confirmed they are investigating an illegal car cruising event in the area but no arrests have yet been made.
Superintendent Jane Higham, of GMP’s Tameside district, said: ‘We continue to recognise the level of upset and dissatisfaction within the local community after the events of last Sunday [19 July].
‘The scenes posted on social media were not acceptable and we are absolutely committed to piecing together the full circumstances of this event.
‘We hope that the news that a man has been interviewed by police officers reinforces our commitment and demonstrates that we are still actively investigating, alongside our partners at the local authority.
‘It’s important to stress that enquiries into last Sunday’s event are very much ongoing and we will pursue anyone found to have committed an offence. This type of behaviour is reckless and puts our communities at risk.
‘We would urge the public to please reach out to us if they have any intelligence that could help us gather a wider picture and stop the coordination and organisation of such illegal events taking place in the next few weeks or months.
‘Thanks to similar intelligence, we were able to stop an illegal rave happening in the area last weekend – which just goes to show how important the support and help of the public is.’
Anyone with any information should contact police on 101 quoting incident number 1748 of 19/07/2020. Details can also be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Alarming footage from the meet near Denton on Sunday showed large rows of cars being lined up near an industrial estate, with several members of the public not wearing face masks nor conforming to any sort of social distancing.
Witnesses compared the event to ‘bonfire night’ and a Formula 1 race due to the popping of cars.