Public Order

Jane Stevenson Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. He is absolutely right. We should collectively call out racist and intolerant behaviour. I am saddened that the Leader of the Opposition has effectively failed to depart from the divisive, hateful, racist politics of his party’s former leader. As for that letter, I will not be dignifying it with a response.

[Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East) (Con)]

Our police have shown tremendous restraint and admirable calm in the last two weeks when faced with dangerous attacks and subject to crowds with covid-19 still very much a factor. Will the Secretary of State ensure that anyone who attacks our police will face the full force of the law, and that those who attack service animals will be prosecuted as quickly as possible under Finn’s law?

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. She speaks with great passion on behalf of her constituents in highlighting the abhorrent and appalling attacks that our police officers and police animals have been subject to. First, the people who commit such attacks should all feel the full force of the law—there is no doubt about that—but we should also recognise that assaults on police officers have an intolerable impact on them as individuals. They are human beings; they are people too. They have family members and loved ones who worry about them when they leave home to go to work. That is why, as I have said previously, we will bring in legislation later this year on protecting our police and the police covenant to ensure that they have their rights upheld in statute.