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It emerged that at least two of the young men in the vehicle had previously posted videos on the platform showcasing reckless driving

Andy Burnham has spoken out on the glorification of dangerous driving following the fatal A66 crash.

During a visit to Kyiv in Ukraine, the Prime Minister said people choosing to share the footage are “doing something that’s truly reprehensible".

In total, seven people died in the collision after a VW Passat drove the wrong way down the busy A-road near Middlesbrough, including two police officers.

PC Matthew Blades, 38 and PC Tom Clough, 37, were killed in the head-on collision.

The two officers and five men were pronounced dead at the scene after colliding in the early hours of yesterday morning near South Bank.

The other five people were identified as Michael Ray, 23, Theo Rae, 17, Cole Worthy, 16, Jakub Matusiak, 23, and Makai Saddington, 18.

Social media posts from the teenagers have revealed their joyriding activities leading up the fatal accident yesterday.

The Prime Minister's comments come after a statement from a Downing Street spokeswoman that said glorification of dangerous driving "for clips and entertainment is utterly disgraceful".

TikTok and other social media firms have been urged to remove wrong-way driving videos from their platforms.

The spokeswoman said: "The glorification of dangerous driving for clips and entertainment is utterly disgraceful and that is why we have raised the issue of this appalling content with social media companies since the tragedy, and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Lisa Nandy) is clear that it should be removed in line with their legal obligations.”

She added that Ofcom has the Government’s "full backing to take tough action" against platforms which fail in their legal duties.

Defence Minister Luke Pollard told GB News earlier today: "It's right that the police have time to investigate what's happened, but I think there are steps that we can take immediately.

"The government has already spoken to the social media companies, telling them to take down that horrendous content that you rightly say is celebrating dangerous driving on our roads.

"It's already illegal to drive down the wrong side of the road in the United Kingdom, and we'll learn the lessons from the police investigation, but we want that content removed online.

"I think it should be for social media companies, who have often argued that they can police themselves. Turn off the algorithm that incentivises and shares this type of illegal content."

Pc Clough’s family said in a statement issued by Cleveland Police: “He was our hero with a fantastic of humour. Jumped into action whenever needed, and willing to help anyone for any reason.

“Proudly fought for his country to make the world a better place. Always on public duty throughout his short life.”

Pc Clough is understood to have served as a soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming a police officer with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and later Cleveland Police.

He has been described as “a true friend” and a “fantastic soldier”, with former comrades posting on social media to express their pride in having served alongside him.

Meanwhile, Pc Blades was a football coach who had been looking forward to teaching his son to play at the local club.

Cleveland police and crime commissioner Matt Storey said it is “absolutely idiotic” for any drivers to be taking part in a social media trend showing people driving the wrong way down roads.

Asked about reports that at least one of the young men who died in a wrong-way collision on Teesside early on Saturday had been involved in filming dangerous driving in TikTok videos, Mr Storey told the BBC: "Yeah, there has been speculation around that, but what I’ve been trying to say all throughout this is it’s really best for people to avoid that kind of speculation.”

But talking about the social media trend, he said: "Without being able to say whether that was anything like involved in this case, it’s absolutely idiotic for anybody to be doing anything other than being completely 100 per cent focused on the road when they’re behind the wheel of a vehicle.

“And for somebody to be filming themselves or doing anything like that is absolutely ridiculous, and of course nobody should be doing that. And it is a worrying situation if that’s becoming more prevalent because it is incredibly dangerous.

"As I say, it may not have been the case in this situation, we don’t know, but anybody who is doing that, wherever it might be, is absolutely wrong to do so."