Crime, crime, crime
Boris lays down law as he tells ministers to focus on...
BORIS Johnson promised to focus on ‘crime, crime, crime’ yesterday as he said it was the Government’s duty to make the streets safer.
The Prime Minister told the Cabinet that officers must bring more rapists to justice and do more to give confidence to victims of sexual offences and domestic violence in the criminal justice system.
‘Crime, crime, crime is what we want to focus on, making our streets safer’ he said.
‘The crucial duty of our Government is to make our communities safer, which is what we are doing.
‘That’s why we put, of the 20,000 police that we promised at the 2019 election, we’ve already put 13,576 on the streets. They are bringing down neighbourhood crime and that’s a great thing to see. But we’ve got more to do.’
He pledged to ‘round up those county lines drugs gangs’ and stop ‘the deaths of young people from knife crime and gun crime’.
But the Prime Minister said more should also be done to give women and girls confidence in the criminal justice system.
‘What we’re also doing is making sure that we give everybody the confidence that we are on their side when it comes to the law and their experiences of crimes – particularly crimes of sexual and domestic violence,’ he said.
‘And we want to see more prosecutions for those who engage in such crimes. We want to see more rapists brought to justice.’
He added: ‘It’s vital to every person, it’s vital to every woman and every girl in the country that we get this right and I want to see more progress on that.’
Mr Johnson also spoke of how cutting crime was ‘integral to our economic mission’.
He said: ‘This matters deeply to me. It matters to our government. It is only when you have safe streets and you have safe communities, that you get the confidence of business to invest and drive jobs and growth.’
Elsewhere, the Home Secretary told the Police Federation of England and Wales yesterday: ‘None of us in this room will ever let women and girls down’.
Priti Patel told their annual conference, held in Manchester, that police ‘need to raise the bar so that women and girls feel confident in reporting crimes’.
Miss Patel said she was ‘very proudly pro-police’ as she unveiled plans to give volunteer police officers powers to use Tasers.
She said: ‘Human rights are not just for criminals, but the law-abiding majority... and that means standing squarely with you – our police.
‘I am very proudly pro-police... anyone who feels differently should certainly vote for someone else.
‘I know many of you feel that you’ve waited a long time for a Home Secretary to be on your side and listen to your calls for change.
‘Not only have I listened, I’ve acted and I’ll continue to work with you because I do think it’s important that you have a Home Secretary that champions many of your calls in government.’
‘None of us will let women down’