Liz Truss has pledged to publish police league tables while asking forces to cut serious crime by 20% if she wins the race to be Prime Minister.
The Tory leadership candidate said she would hold police to account and ensure they “spend their time investigating real crimes, not Twitter rows and hurt feelings.” If she beats her rival Rishi Sunak in the race to No. 10, Ms Truss said her Government would tell police to cut homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime by a fifth by the end of this parliament.
She said she would release crime rate statistics showing how each force is performing against the national average, with leaders of underperforming ones forced to set out plans to improve. Truss also wants every domestic burglary to be physically attended by a police officer.
READ MORE: Dad's emotional speech from the dock as he faces years behind bars
In her bid to win over Tory members before they start voting for their new leader next week, the Foreign Secretary said she would give police and crime commissioners more powers to “veto training that focuses on identity politics.” Free speech would be protected in the code of practice governing hate incidents, she said.
Ms Truss said: “People across our country want criminals locked up, and crime prevented, so they feel safe on their streets. We and our fantastic Conservative police and crime commissioners have made good progress since the 2019 election, with over 13,000 new police officers on the streets and the increase in powers and resources having a real impact in communities around the country, but we now need to go further and faster.
“It’s time for the police to get back to basics and spend their time investigating real crimes, not Twitter rows and hurt feelings. People can trust me to deliver and these league tables will help hold the police to account – making our streets safer and our country more prosperous.”
The Commons Public Accounts Committee recently warned that the Home Office faces “significant challenges” in hiring another 6,500 officers by next March to reach the Conservative manifesto target of 20,000. MPs on the committee criticised the programme’s focus so far “on getting people through the door” without setting out how the new officers’ impact on crime will be assessed.
A Truss campaign source said: “Burglars, thugs and murderers should expect to be taken off our streets and thrown behind bars, but it’s unfortunate that some chief constables are not cracking down as hard as they should be. Liz will hold their feet to the fire, and these newly published statistics will help the public do the same.”
A campaign spokesperson for Rishi Sunak said: “A lightweight plan based on publishing data the Government already does and a power grab away from Police and Crime Commissioners, including many excellent Conservative PCCs driving down crime in their area. The real way to get crime down is more police on the streets, which is why Rishi Sunak has prioritised funding to get these 20,000 new officers by the next general election.
“And on ‘non crime hate incidents’, we don’t need a code of practice. Things are either illegal or legal. Free speech is legal and the police should not be wasting time getting involved, and they won’t in a Rishi Sunak government.”
Meanwhile, Sunak has been accused of a dramatic U-turn on tax after pledging to cut VAT on energy bills, something he previously denounced a “comforting fairy tale” when proposed by Truss
It came after the Tory leadership hopeful "flip-flopped" by unveiling plans to remove VAT from domestic energy bills for a year if the price cap – currently just under £2,000 a year for the average home – exceeds £3,000 as is forecast by experts.
READ NEXT:
- Sister of Haydn Griffiths explains what happened in TV interview
- Floral tributes left to 'one in a million' friend found dead on train tracks
- Delamere Forest blaze confirmed as 'accidental' due to 'extreme' weather
- Major road closed as work underway on new £80m train station
- Merseyside train strike to cause transport chaos as Arriva buses are still off
