Hampshire club staff threatened with 'random assaults' including hammer attacks after comedian Andrew Lawrence's gig cancelled over racist tweets

The Concorde Club in Stoneham Lane, Eastleigh, has received an email from someone calling themselves ‘Gordon’, who says fires will be started on the premises and staff will be targeted with ‘a hammer in the back of the head’.

The emailed threat added that manager will be ‘grabbed & stabbed’ alongside their family members, and that dyes will be thrown around the venue, vehicles in the car park will be damaged, and human faeces will be found in food.

The sender of the email says the threats are due to the ‘witch hunt to ruin a man’s career because he can no longer tolerate those miserable, ungrateful blacks’.

It follows the club’s decision to cancel a gig by comedian Andrew Lawrence, after several racist tweets on his account targeted the England players who missed penalties during the Euro 2020 final.

Now the email of ‘pure hatred’ had left the club’s staff shaken, according to a message posted on a social media page run by The Concorde Club.

The message added: ‘Further to our difficulties yesterday with having to cancel a comedian date due to his tweets, our staff have now been subjected to threats of the most evil kind.

‘It has left some of our staff shaken. We have notified the police and so hope that they will be able to trace this low life.

‘We have tried during this whole pandemic to put on as much entertainment to give entertainment starved customers a smile on their faces during these difficult times. The last few days make this job so much harder but as ever we will keep on going.’

Hampshire Constabulary and The Concorde Club has been approached for further comment.

The comedian’s account has now been closed after tweeting the racist messages ‘all I'm saying is, the white guys scored’ and ‘I'm sorry that black guys are bad at penalties’.

England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka – who respectively have scored 89, 92, and 67 per cent of their professional penalties according to Press Association analysis – have spoken out against the racism they have faced following the Euro 2020 tournament.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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