Priti Patel – Violence against police will be met with ‘full force of the law’
Sophy Ridge interviewed the Home Secretary Priti Patel, asking her about the difficulties involved in policing Britain under lockdown. Recent weeks have not only seen mass protests on the streets, but also scenes like an illegal street party in Brixton where police officers were attacked. The Metropolitan Police’s chief commissioner Cressida Dick has said that around 140 officers have been hurt over the past three weeks. Patel told Ridge that the government was tightening measures to protect key workers:
PP: I’m committed, and we’ll be putting measures in place to double the sentencing on assaults on emergency workers… The violence that we have seen against our officers is unacceptable… If people do assault police officers, they will feel the full force of the law.
Asylum seekers’ accommodation is in line with the law
Friday also saw a knife attack take place at the Park Inn hotel in Glasgow, which saw six people injured, including Constable David Whyte, who has been praised for his bravery in confronting the attacker. Ridge asked Patel why the perpetrator, an asylum seeker who was shot dead in the fray, had been housed in a hotel rather than a flat, as was standard procedure:
PP: Accommodation has been allocated in this particular way because of the Covid-19 crisis… Everything we do in terms of asylum accommodation… is within [the legal] framework.
My Labour critics hold ‘racist’ view of me
Ridge also inquired about a letter written to Patel by 32 Labour MPs who accused her of ‘gaslighting’ people of ethnic minority backgrounds after she had told the House of Commons that she ‘would not take lectures’ from the opposition on racism. Patel dismissed the letter as hypocritical:
PP: They clearly take the… position that I just don’t conform to their preconceived idea or stereotypical view of what an ethnic minority woman should stand for… and in my view that in itself is racist… I’m not going to dignify that letter any further.
Robert Jenrick case is ‘deemed to be closed’
Patel also appeared opposite Andrew Marr, who quizzed her about the activities of the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick. Jenrick granted planning permission for a luxury housing development in east London’s Isle of Dogs, with the developer, Richard Desmond, donating £12,000 to the Conservative party shortly afterwards. Jenrick’s swift approval is reported to have saved Desmond from paying up to £45 million to Tower Hamlets council, bypassing a local infrastructure tax:
AM: Mr Jenrick decided to do exactly what the developer wanted, against the advice of his own officials, and… two weeks later, Desmond donated £12,000… Is that a coincidence?
PP: The correspondence, the documentation is out in the public domain… The secretary of state has followed all issues around transparency. It’s has been discussed in Parliament a number of times… and the matter is deemed to be closed.
Enjoy yourself responsibly
Pubs, restaurants and other venues are to begin opening up again from next Saturday, as part of the government’s roadmap for returning the UK to normality. However, concerns have been raised by the Police Federation, who are worried about a ‘pressure cooker building up’ as many people begin to congregate for the first time since late March. Patel said that people should have fun, but continue to be cautious:
PP: I would say go [to the pub], be responsible, follow the guidance, practise social distancing. Follow the hygiene as well… It’s incumbent on all of us to… enjoy ourselves in a responsible way, but be conscientious of other people around us.
Jonathan Reynolds – Furlough scheme should be extended
Ridge also spoke to the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who called for the government’s furlough scheme to be extended for certain sectors of the economy, such as the hospitality and tourism industries:
JR: We have over 9 million people furloughed. As employers have to make contributions… the danger is many of those people will simply be made redundant… [The scheme] should be extended – not in a universal way, but in a sector specific way.
Universal Credit is not ‘a strong safety net’
Reynolds also confirmed that it was still Labour’s position to make major reforms to Universal Credit, the government’s flagship benefits system. Though Labour have called for some alterations during the pandemic, such as abolishing the five week wait for the first payment, Reynolds implied that this was only the tip of the iceberg:
JR: What you need… is a strong safety net that gets people through crises like this one, but also when they’ve lost their job or they’re too ill to work, and that is not what Universal Credit provides.
Ed Miliband – Starmer was right to sack Long-Bailey
Ed Miliband, now serving as the Shadow Business Secretary, told Marr that he thought Keir Starmer has no option but to dismiss their colleague Rebecca Long-Bailey from her post in the shadow cabinet. Long-Bailey, the left’s standard bearer in the last Labour leadership contest, approvingly tweeted an article featuring the actress Maxine Peake, who in turn had indulged a conspiracy theory that the Israeli Defence Force trained the American police responsible for George Floyd’s death in May:
EM: Rebecca is a very decent person, but… over the centuries when calamitous things have happened, Jews have been blamed… and that’s why I believe that Keir took the right decision… We cannot have a debate at the next general election about whether Labour is an anti-Semitic party.
Starmer does not want to ‘purge’ the Labour left
Several on Labour’s left have rallied to Long-Bailey’s defence, including the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and the former party chairman Ian Lavery. Reacting to a comment in Marr’s paper review segment, Miliband felt compelled to stress that Long-Bailey’s resignation was not about to precipitate a purge of the wider left from the party:
EM: I heard something in your paper review about how Keir wants to purge [the left of the party]. He’s not about purges… He wants to change this country by unifying the Labour party, but also not having the Labour party mired in issues which provide a stain on us…
AM: Ian Lavery… has encouraged people to stay inside the party and fight…
EM: We should fight the Conservatives.
Starmer will ‘definitely’ be a better leader than me
And finally, Miliband gave his opinion on Keir Starmer’s chances of future electoral success:
AM: Is he going to be a better leader of the Labour party than you?
EM: Definitely. We’ve seen that already. I certainly never had his approval ratings!… I think the more people see of him, the more they’re going to see the integrity, the principle, and the decency that I know really well.
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