Violence Reduction, Policing and Criminal Justice

Keir Mather Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Keir Mather (Selby and Ainsty) (Lab)]

It would be remiss of me not to begin by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Michael Shanks) on a fantastic maiden speech. I remember saying in mine, which feels like 1,000 years ago, that I admired his integrity and intelligence. I think those values shone through in his speech, and will shine through in his conduct in this place.

It is a pleasure to rise to speak in this debate on the King’s Speech for the first time as the Member of Parliament for Selby and Ainsty, but I must say that I am a little disappointed. I was sent to this place to hold this Government to account—to scrutinise their agenda and their concrete plans for government—but this King’s Speech has revealed that there is scarcely a plan at all. Instead, the Conservative party has resigned itself to drift rudderless toward the next election, shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic while working people in communities such as mine suffer the consequences of 13 years of decline. Nowhere is that more apparent than on crime: the so-called party of law and order has sleepwalked into a crisis where 90% of crimes go unsolved and a criminal on the street is half as likely to be caught today than under the last Labour Government. The Conservative legacy on crime is one of damaging decline and collapsing confidence, and communities such as Sherburn in Elmet in my constituency are paying the price.

Sherburn is a bustling and dynamic place with a bright future. It has grown from a village to a town, with its population expanding by around 2,000 people in the past 10 years, but with that growth comes worry about crime and a fear that the hard-working staff at North Yorkshire police do not have sufficient resources to address these issues. In my recent election campaign, the Conservatives had the gall to celebrate how 251 more police officers were now on the streets of North Yorkshire, asking us to be grateful while seemingly oblivious to the fact that those officers were merely replacing the ones we have lost from our streets since the Conservatives took power in 2010, as well as those who have been forced to leave the profession they love due to overwork, anxiety and stress.

It is plain to those local residents in Sherburn who feel threatened by burglary and whose streets are made unsafe by antisocial behaviour that this Government are dangerously out of their depth, and are unwilling to use opportunities such as the King’s Speech to get a grip on spiralling crime. His Majesty’s speech could have provided what everyone in my constituency knows we need, and what my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mrs Hamilton) outlined so ably: a fundamental reset for our police services and criminal justice system. Under Labour’s plans to tackle crime, we would see 13,000 more officers and PCSOs on our streets, fast-tracked detective recruitment and a return to proper neighbourhood policing with guaranteed neighbourhood patrols, as well as new powers to tackle antisocial behaviour in our town centres. Instead, it is all too clear that this Government are unprepared to take the important decisions necessary to solve the crisis in which they have placed us. My hon. Friends and I will do all we can to push them to go further until a general election allows us to deliver the fresh start that communities such as mine so desperately need.