We cannot leave anyone behind, says Javid
Home Secretary uses major speech on Britain’s crime to make a veiled pitch for the Conservative leadership
SAJID JAVID will today declare that Britain “cannot afford to leave anyone behind” as he makes a veiled leadership pitch with a major speech on crime.
The Home Secretary will stake his claim to succeed Theresa May with a vision of a society that guarantees people equal opportunity irrespective of their background or upbringing. In the speech to 100 police and crime experts, he will say: “Changing the lives of young people will not be an easy task. Crime has a way of drawing in those who feel worthless.
“But when you belong to something greater than yourself, when you have something to lose, it’s not as easy to throw your life away.
“No future should be predetermined by where you’re born, or how you’re brought up. We cannot afford to leave anyone behind.”
It marks a shift in tone by Mr Javid, whom opposition MPS have taunted for wooing the Right of the party with hardline policies on terror and his support for a no-deal Brexit.
On Saturday, The Daily Telegraph disclosed Mr Javid, who is being advised by Matthew Elliott, former chief executive of Vote Leave, had drawn up a technological solution to remove the Irish backstop and avoid a hard border, a proposal championed by Brexiteers but rejected by the Treasury.
Last week, however, he launched his leadership bid with a speech to 50 Tory MPS in which he said the party needed to “show love” to public sector workers in order to win a majority at the next election.
He described public services as his “ladder” out of poverty, telling the social justice group of MPS that he used public libraries for study, while praising the NHS, state schools and university for helping him to make his way in the world.
Born in Rochdale in 1969 of Pakistani Muslim heritage, he grew up above a shop in Bristol with two bedrooms for a family of seven. His father was a bus driver who arrived in the Sixties with £1 in his pocket.
He will continue the theme today, saying there needs to be a shift in the “mindset of government” in order to tackle violence among young people with teachers, doctors, nurses and government coordinated. Reaffirming the need for a “public health” approach to knife crime, he will compare serious violence to the “outbreak of some virulent disease” and say that all parts of government must work together to tackle crime in “all its guises” and “ensure there is no let up until the violence is eradicated”.
He will underline the importance of health workers and teachers in such a “public health” approach, as it should give them “the confidence to report their concerns, safe in the knowledge that everyone will close ranks to protect that child”.
“Just as we can design products to prevent crime, we can also design policy to shape the lives of young people to prevent criminality,” he will say.
His speech follows polling by Yougov that showed crime had overtaken health as the prime concern of people behind Brexit.
There were 285 fatal stabbings in England and Wales in 2017-18 – the highest since records started in 1946.
Ministers have announced a £100million cash injection for police to tackle knife crime and relaxed rules on the use of enhanced stop and search powers in badly-hit areas.
At a Downing Street summit on knife crime last month, Mr Javid and Mrs May have unveiled the new “public health” approach to violent crime.
Under the plans, state bodies could be made subject to a legal duty requiring them to have “due regard” to the prevention and tackling of violence.