Closing summary
That’s all from me for today. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the day’s most prominent events:
- Scotland Yard’s vetting process is unfit for purpose, a former Met police commissioner said. In the wake of the sentencing of Wayne Couzens, who abused his position as a serving officer to murder Sarah Everard, Lord Stevens said an “extraordinary story of blunders had occurred.
- But, while he said Cressida Dick should be held accountable, Stevens insisted that should not include her losing her post as the country’s top police officer. He said the politicians who cut policing budgets should also bear responsibility.
- The domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs called on police forces to prioritise tackling domestic abuse and crimes of sexual violence. The policing minister Kit Malthouse came under fire for suggesting it was up to local areas to decide whether violence against women and girls is a serious crime.
- And the chairman of the Commons justice committee said the government should consider making misogyny a hate crime. The Tory MP Sir Bob Neill said ministers could on the issue as had been done in respect of racism following the Macpherson inquiry into the killing of Stephen Lawrence.
- Malthouse said the police faced a long road to gaining the public’s trust. He said officers recognised the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer had “struck a devastating blow to the confidence that people have in police officers but also in the Met police in particular”.
- The policing minister also warned that motorists could face another “week or so” of long queues at filling stations as demand for petrol remains strong. He said there needed to be an “improvement” in the situation in the coming days, but did not raise the prospect of the prime minister taking any action to help unless there was a deterioration.
- Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay were elected the new joint-leaders of the Green party in England and Wales. They succeed Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley and take over at a potentially crucial moment for the party, as it tries to build on healthy local election results and national polling showing it with as much as 9% support, above the Liberal Democrats.
The prime minister must take emergency action to address the shortage of lorry drivers, which is threatening to ruin Christmas, the Labour leader Keir Starmer has said.
He added that a government scheme to issue 5,000 temporary visas for foreign drivers would not be up and running “for weeks” and said Boris Johnson should, if necessary, recall parliament – suspended for the party conference season – to pass emergency legislation.
We’re going to see this driver shortage problem coming back again in different sectors. And I don’t want people in this country to have another Christmas ruined by this prime minister’s lack of planning.
Every day wasted is prolonging this crisis. The government has been talking about issuing visas but still hasn’t done anything. Meanwhile, our essential workers are struggling to get to work and families face a cost of living crisis.
The prime minister should be taking emergency action today but yet again he’s failed to grasp the seriousness of the crisis. If it needs legislation, then let’s recall parliament to get these emergency measures through urgently.”
Anger has been expressed after a Conservative police, fire and crime commissioner suggested women need to be more “streetwise” to protect themselves from police officers abusing their power to rape and murder them.
Philip Allott, who is responsible for North Yorkshire, said women should be aware that breaching Covid regulations – the ruse Couzens used to abduct Everard – was not an offence for which one should normally expect to be arrested.
So women, first of all, need to be streetwise about when they can be arrested and when they can’t be arrested. She should never have been arrested and submitted to that. Perhaps women need to consider in terms of the legal process, to just learn a bit about that legal process.
Lucy Arnold, from the campaign group Reclaim the Streets, who organised a vigil following Everard’s death, told the BBC:
I think frankly that was a horrifically offensive thing to say. Does anyone really feel like they can stand up to a police officer? I am very confident I know my rights, I know the law, but no I wouldn’t feel confident at all.
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'Politicians who cut police budgets responsible' – former Scotland Yard commissioner
Asked who should take responsibility for those failures, Stevens has told LBC Radio:
I mean all the politicians. I mean the mayor (Sadiq Khan), I mean the home secretary (Priti Patel), I mean people who have allowed the police service to continue onward and been hollowed out in the centre in terms of finances.
Yes they’re doing a lot now to try and bring officers – 20,000 more in – yes there is the support there that wasn’t before, but politicians can’t just side-step the responsibility for what’s going on. They are the people who hold the service to account and the police service itself has to deal with these issues.
But there has to be change and there has to be rapid change and that change has to come in very, very quickly indeed because public confidence has been massively effected in terms of the police service generally.
Scotland Yard vetting 'not fit for purpose', says former police chief
While he did not believe the failures on Dick’s watch make her unfit to continue as the country’s top police officer, Lord Stevens acknowledged the vetting process over which she presides is unfit for purpose. He has told LBC Radio:
The fact that [Couzens] in 2015 was seen to be driving around without any clothes on from his waist downwards, the fact he was called a rapist, the fact that he was a really strange individual, I mean there is no way that that man should have been given a gun.
A proper vetting process, the vetting process is obviously not fit for the purpose and this needs all to be changed, it’s an extraordinary story of blunders and of that there’s no doubt.
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One of Cressida Dick’s predecessors as Scotland Yard commissioner, Lord Stevens, has said she should be made accountable for the failures on her watch that allowed Wayne Couzens to abuse his position to murder Sarah Everard – but insisted that should not include her leaving her post.
He has told LBC Radio:
I think she should stay and I think she should carry on and I think the phrase ‘I’m staying, we’re changing’ is the way forward.
He described the case as “horrendous”, adding: “My heart goes out to family who’ve got a life of dealing with it, the rest of their lives.” But he said:
The issue is, basically, [Dick] was given an additional two-year contract beyond her five years, that was done with the assistance and agreement of the home secretary and the mayor of London. Now I don’t know the circumstances, they would have interviewed her, they’d have discussed it, they came to the conclusion she was the right person to carry on with the job and they would have known when they saw her, the details in relation to Couzens and his horrendous activities.
So I think she’s got to be made accountable, of course she has to do that, she’s decided on her own to stay for two years ... so I think we need to move on.
It was interesting last night people talking about concentrating on one person, we’ve got to deal with the issues. This has been a devastating effect on the reputation of the police service nationally, and you know people are incredibly worried about going out on the street at night and we’ve got to do something about it. We want to see an action plan, that action plan needs to have a timescale and that timescale has to be overseen by an independent body.
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Make misogyny a hate crime, senior Tory MP suggests
The chairman of the Commons justice committee has said the government should consider making misogyny a hate crime in the way that racism was following the Macpherson inquiry into the killing of Stephen Lawrence.
The Tory MP Sir Bob Neill told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One:
One of the things that was good after Macpherson was that it was recognised in due course that racism ought to be regarded as a particularly aggravating feature. We have made racially motivated offences a hate crime. I think there is a case now for looking at misogyny.
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A top Conservative official has quit as the party prepares for its annual conference, the Mirror reports.
Campaigns director Lucy Wheeler wrote to staff to say she was leaving after 14 years and described the decision as “difficult”.
Her departure comes after some in the party blamed her for the Tories’ loss in the Chesham and Amersham byelection.
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Nicole Jacobs’ comments echo those of the victims commissioner for England and Wales, Vera Baird. She said violence against women and girls should be made a strategic policing requirement to give the issue central direction and extra resources, particularly for specialist officers, so there was “no doubt what obligations the police have towards victims”
She added: “There are many unanswered questions about how violence against women and girls is policed and I think if we have this clear requirement it sends a clear message that tackling it is a priority.”
Baird said requirements on agencies to fully investigate and take action in cases of violence against women could be included in the victims bill, which the Guardian understands was ready to be consulted on before the new justice secretary, Dominic Raab, took up his post.
Tackling violence against women and girls should be priority for police, says domestic abuse commissioner
The domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs has called on police forces to prioritise tackling domestic abuse and crimes of sexual violence, amid calls for the government to launch an inquiry after Sarah Everard’s murder.
Policing minister Kit Malthouse came under fire for suggesting it was up to local areas to decide whether violence against women and girls is a serious crime, PA Media reports
Asked on Radio 4’s Today programme why the Government was “resisting” putting violence against women and girls on the same level as knife crime, terrorism and other offences that are prioritised, Mr Malthouse responded: “What we have said is the serious violence duty which is embedded in the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill currently in the House of Lords is very widely drawn, and specifically so to allow local areas to design their own strategies about the violence that particularly affects them.
“If there are areas that particularly want to focus on violence against woman and girls and feel they have a systemic problem, then the duty allows them to do that.”
But Jess Phillips, Labour’s shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, branded his comments an “insult” on Twitter, adding: “Imagine him saying that about terrorism - do it if you want.”
In another post, Ms Jacobs added: “The case could not be clearer. The govt must explicitly include Violence Against Women & Girls in the serious violence duty in the Policing Bill. Domestic abuse + sexual violence must be strategic priorities for all forces.”
Labour said the Government must launch a comprehensive, swift and transparent independent inquiry to answer outstanding questions on how warning signs of Wayne Couzens’ behaviour were not acted upon and more widely investigate police safeguarding, vetting and misconduct procedures to ensure “nobody slips through the net”.
The party also wants to see ministers bring forward legislation to address violence against women and girls.
People in Wales are facing a “triple challenge” to their health and wellbeing, according to a report by Public Health Wales.
Taking into account the effects of Brexit, Covid and climate change, the study suggests diet, nutrition and travel could all be affected, with also alcohol consumption increasing.
According the PA Media, the study cites the World Health Organisation’s prediction that successive lockdowns could potentially cause people to drink more - exacerbating health vulnerability, making risk-taking behaviour more likely, and increasing mental health issues and violence.
One year after the first lockdown, 18% of people in Wales reported drinking more alcohol than they did before the pandemic, which equates to around 445,000 adults.
The report suggests the groups that may be worst-off in the immediate and long-term future could include those in rural communities, fishers and farmers, those on low incomes, and children and young people.
Liz Green, consultant in Public Health, Policy and International Health at Public Health Wales, said: “The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the complex, interwoven relationships between health, wellbeing, inequalities, the economy, the environment, and society as a whole. In doing so, it has created new inequalities, but also exacerbated existing health inequalities.
“Events such as the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union and climate change are also having a cumulative impact on the Welsh population’s health and wellbeing. In short, Wales and the UK are facing an unprecedented ‘triple challenge’.”
After a short campaign, and the first election since 2012 with no incumbent and no clear favourite, Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer are the new co-leaders of the Green party of England and Wales, and they take the helm with the wind in their party’s sails.
The new leaders focused their pitch on Denyer’s position as candidate for the top target seat of Bristol West, and ex-deputy Ramsay’s long experience of winning elections for the party. Tamsin Omond and current deputy leader Amelia Womack ran an impressive, energetic campaign – but Denyer and Ramsay, whose campaign was backed by Caroline Lucas, won by a close margin. Reassuringly for many Greens, the candidate who was at the centre of a row over trans right, Shahrar Ali, got just over 20% of the vote in the first round, and will surely now end his near-consistent presence in leadership contests as his vote share slipped.
This win for Denyer and Ramsay comes at an extremely opportune moment for their party. Not only are they riding high in the polls – just this week overtaking the Liberal Democrats as the UK’s third party – but the Greens have a record number of councillors spread across England and Wales. As the outgoing and widely respected leader, Siân Berry, says, she leaves the party on a “solid upward path”.
A Sinn Féin minister is seeking legal advice after the latest DUP no-show at a cross-border political meeting.
Stormont communities minister Deirdre Hargey said non-engagement in the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) meeting was a “serious failure” to comply with Stormont’s ministerial code.
It comes after DUP junior minister Gary Middleton did not log on for a virtual sectoral NSMC meeting on languages with Hargey and Irish minister of state Jack Chambers on Friday.
Under Stormont rules, any Northern Ireland Executive meeting with the Irish government must involve both a nationalist and an accompanying unionist minister. If one does not show, the meeting cannot proceed.
Last month, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson announced his party would be boycotting north-south meetings as part of its ongoing campaign of protest against Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol.
He said his party would only continue cross-border cooperation on health issues.
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Growth at UK factories has hit a seven-month low, with supply chain delays, a slowdown in new orders and rising material and labour shortages all hitting the economy. You can read a little more about that over on our business live blog.
Responding to the news, the shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, has said:
This government’s complacency and failure to get a grip on supply chain disruption has led to the impacts we’re now seeing.
For month after month, ministers were warned by business about the risks to recovery but they collectively buried their heads in the sand. This supply chain disruption is now causing a ripple effect damaging our manufacturing industry with business and the British people paying the price.
Blaming global factors is a poor excuse to try and avoid responsibility for lack of planning here at home. It’s time they finally got a grip, worked with business, sector by sector, on doing everything they can to address the problems from HGV driver shortages to skills shortages throughout our economy.
Denyer and Ramsay were unveiled as the successors to the previous leadership duo, Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley, at an event in London on Friday morning.
They defeated a field comprising two other duos – Amelia Womack and Tamsin Omond, and Martin Hemingway and Tina Rothery – and two individual candidates, Shahrar Ali and Ashley Gunstock.
The leadership battle, only a year since the last contest, came after Berry and Bartley both decided to step down, after three years in the role for Berry and five for Bartley, initially as co-leader alongside Caroline Lucas.
The new leaders take over at a potentially crucial moment for the party, as it tries to build on healthy local election results and national polling showing it with as much as 9% support, above the Liberal Democrats.
Greens in England and Wales elect new leaders
NEW Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay elected as new co-leaders of the Greens in England and Wales.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) October 1, 2021
They beat Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack, once second choices counted, by 6,273 votes to 5,088. The two pairs were seen as clear favourites, and were both well ahead of the other four pairs/individuals
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) October 1, 2021
Denyer & Ramsay were arguably seen as the safer, more establishment choice. While Womack is deputy leader, Omond co-founded Extinction Rebellion and is seen as close to the party's younger activist base.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) October 1, 2021
Police forces should be compelled to deal with violence against women and girls with the same level of resources, expertise and urgency as terrorism or organised crime, the victims commissioner for England and Wales has said.
After Sarah Everard’s killer was given a full-life sentence on Thursday, campaigners said there was increasing frustration and the time for action was now.
Vera Baird said violence against women and girls should be made a strategic policing requirement to give the issue central direction and extra resources, particularly for specialist officers, so there was “no doubt what obligations the police have towards victims”.
There are many unanswered questions about how violence against women and girls is policed and I think if we have this clear requirement it sends a clear message that tackling it is a priority.
Minister admits it may take government another week to get to grips with fuel crisis
Motorists could face another “week or so” of long queues at filling stations as demand for petrol remains strong, a government minister has warned.
Kit Malthouse said there needed to be an “improvement” in the situation in the coming days and that Boris Johnson stands ready to review matters if there is any deterioration.
His downbeat assessment contrasted sharply with comments by other ministers in recent days that the situation would swiftly return to normal as drivers resumed their usual buying patterns.
It follows a warning by the Petrol Retailers Association that filling stations were running out of fuel faster than they could be resupplied, with one in four forecourts having run dry. Malthouse told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:
We are still seeing strong demand in parts of the country around fuel. The distribution mechanism is trying to respond to this unprecedented demand.
My latest briefing is that the situation is stabilising, that we are seeing more forecourts with a greater supply of fuel and hopefully that, as demand and supply come better into balance over the next few days, week or so, that we will see a return to normality.
I think if things started to deteriorate further, obviously the prime minister and the secretary of state for energy, whose responsibility this is, will have to review the situation.
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Here’s a little more on those comments from the policing minister, Kit Malthouse, who said there are important lessons for the police to learn from the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer (see 9.18am). He has told Sky News:
My job is effectively to help the home secretary hold the police to account about what went wrong, how this monster slipped through the net to become a police officer, how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.
But he joined several other politicians and policing figures in rejecting mounting calls for Cressida Dick to resign, adding:
She is a dedicated and talented and committed police officer who is driving the Metropolitan police to ever greater standards of care and improvement and fighting crime.
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Paddick has said police officers in the London force are “concerned that things may be going backwards rather than forwards”. He said:
When I was in the police, I was told it was OK to be a woman, or to be gay, or to be black, provided you behaved like a straight white man.
We need more women leaders. But, more importantly, we need police leaders who recognise the problems with prejudice in the police service; whether it’s sexism or racism or other forms of prejudice, who are prepared to acknowledge that these problems exist, who are prepared to do something about them.
At the moment, all we get is denial.
Even now, I talk to serving police officers and they tell me – particularly in the Metropolitan police – they are concerned that things may be going backwards rather than forwards.
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There is “widespread sexism” within the Metropolitan police, according to the Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick, who was a deputy assistant commissioner in the force. He said there needed to be a cultural change, particularly at the Met, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
There’s been a series of allegations recently in the Metropolitan police about inappropriate behaviour by Metropolitan police officers, and for me that’s a sign of a wider cultural problem.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call it institutional misogyny, but I would describe it as widespread sexism within the force, and we need police leaders to acknowledge prejudice within the police service, and who are prepared to do something about it.
Lord Paddick said women were safe with the “overwhelming majority” of police officers, adding that the perception needed to be addressed.
A third of police constables nationally are now women, and that needs to be improved, obviously, but it does mean wherever possible male officers should patrol with a female officer to provide visible reassurance.
We need to get to a situation where women victims tell other women that they were treated well by the police, so that it changes the perception amongst women. It is the perception that needs to be addressed, not necessarily the reality.
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Policing minister says officers must work hard to earn public's trust
The pressure is mounting on the Metropolitan police chief, Dame Cressida Dick, following the sentencing of one of her officers who used his position of power to rape and murder Sarah Everard in March.
There are calls for the commissioner to lose her job over the failure to properly vet the officer, despite the force admitting the signs were there that he was a threat to women. Today, the policing minister, Kit Malthouse, has told Sky News the road to gaining the public’s trust will be a long and arduous one:
[The police] recognise that this has struck a devastating blow to the confidence that people have in police officers but also in the Met police in particular. For those thousands and thousands of police officers out there who will have to work harder – much harder – to win public trust it is a very, very difficult time.
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