Brexit ‘huge driver’ of crimes and threats against MPS

CRIMES against MPS have more than doubled in a year, with threats at “unprecedented” levels, senior police officers warned yesterday.

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, told the Commons human rights committee that the murder of Jo Cox and attacks on others in public life had contributed to an “extraordinary set of circumstances”.

“What we are also seeing is polarised opinion having a big impact on the scale and nature of protest activity, not just in the environs of Parliament but also beyond,” she said.

The number of crimes against MPS reported rose by 126 per cent from 151 in 2017 to 342 last year, according to Neil Basu, the Met’s assistant commissioner and head of counter-terrorism.

From January to April this year, it rose by 90 per cent to 152. He said Brexit was the “huge driver” with 43 per cent against Brexiteers and 47 per cent aimed at Remainers. ALISTAIR BURT, a former minister who quit the Government over Brexit, has taken the unusual step of asking for his Foreign Office job back.

Mr Burt resigned in March as a junior foreign minister to vote for greater parliamentary control over Brexit. His role in the FCO, which covered the Middle East and Africa, has remained vacant since.

In the period since Mr Burt left office, the Algerian president resigned and the United States announced it is sending an aircraft carrier strike group and a fleet of bombers to the Middle East in response to “troubling and escalatory indications” of Iranian activity.

Mr Burt told The Times: “I fully accept the responsibility for my resignation lies with me and no one else.

“But the situation in the Middle East is such that the Government must appoint someone to my old FCO role. I would dearly love to do it myself, although I recognise the delicacy of this.”