Worried father Sunak keen to make UK streets safe for women and children

BRITISH prime minister Rishi Sunak has spoken of his worry as a parent for his daughters, saying he was determined to crack down on crime and make the country’s streets safer.

The father of 11-year-old Krishna and nine-year-old Anoushka told reporters on the way to the G20 Summit in Bali last weekend that the safety of women was personally important to him.

Sunak noted recent high profile incidents of attacks on women and girls in the UK to assert the issue was a priority for him.

“I want to make sure that my kids and everyone else can walk around safely; that’s what any parent wants for their children,” the prime minister said, as he admitted that “many of us men” take safety “for granted”.

“So, tackling that and making it safer for people is something that’s just personally quite important to me.”

According to a BBC report last Saturday (19), Sunak recalled how Krishna had wanted to walk to her primary school in London by herself when she turned 11. This was why his family previously moved out of their 11 Downing Street flat earlier this year and closer to her school before he resigned as chancellor in July.

The Sunak family have since moved back into the 10 Downing Street flat after he took office as prime minister last month.

Asked about life back at Downing Street, he said the transition was “easier than it otherwise might have been” as the family previously resided there.

On tackling crime, Sunak said people in disadvantaged backgrounds were more likely to be affected by crime and he wanted to “deliver for those people” by putting more officers on streets.

Pushed on if the number of people in prison should be higher, Sunak said this was a “logical consequence of catching more criminals” and the government was building 10,000 more prison places in the next few years.