MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL has been accused of selling out to despots and oligarchs by removing references to United Arab Emirates human rights abuses in a play commemorating the Peterloo Massacre.

The work, entitled From the Crowd, was commissioned by the council to commemorate the events of August 1819, when 18 protesters were murdered at the hands of the yeomanry.

The Sunday Times reported that it had seen a “before” and “after” script in which references to rights abuses and the UAE’s growing influence in Manchester were removed by council suggestion.