Bradley Thomas
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Bradley Thomas Excerpts(1 day, 6 hours ago)
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Sarah Jones
The right hon. Gentleman is right to talk about political impartiality. It is absolutely crucial that our police are not making decisions based on politics. We ask them every day to almost do that, even though we are very clear that they must not. It is difficult and complicated, and when they are policing—for example, in London or our big cities—protests with multiple causes, and protests in response to events around the world that are deeply interesting to a lot of citizens of this country, we do ask a lot of them. We need to appreciate that, in the vast majority of cases, they make the right call, and they also do things behind closed doors that we do not see. For example, there is lots of negotiation with lots of protest organisations about changing the route of a protest, and making sure that it is moving in the right way to avoid more conflict. In the main, they do a very good job, but we need to make sure that we get to the bottom of this case.
Bradley Thomas (Bromsgrove) (Con)
This whole sorry episode will have had a very corrosive effect on the confidence and trust that the Jewish community places in policing. What will the Government do to ensure that confidence is restored in the long term? Whether we are talking about this instance at Villa Park, or disorder following pro-Palestinian marches, can the Minister tell me and the House why, far too often, the Jewish community is made to feel that it is the problem?
Sarah Jones
The hon. Member raises a good question. Of course, we need to work with the Jewish community to make sure that relationships with police are strong. The Community Security Trust has a really good relationship with police. It works very closely with them, and it obviously has a huge infrastructure, for which we are very grateful, that helps it to monitor synagogues and other spaces. As probably many Members have done, I have been to its head office and seen the work that it does. Indeed, it has a police officer embedded in the operations centre some of the time. Those relationships are good, but the wider Jewish community of course needs to feel that it can go to the police and report crimes. I would encourage all members of that community to do so whenever they are affected by any kind of hate crime, so that we can make sure that the figures are accurate. I will of course keep working to make sure that we get this right.