Public Order

Martyn Day Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is right. As I have said many times, including at the weekend—I would urge all Members to do the same in their own communities—we are in a pandemic and are not out of the woods when it comes to this horrendous disease. We have made tremendous progress, and are all grateful for that. The British public have shown tremendous resolve and resilience throughout the pandemic, but it is right that we continue to reinforce the message that mass gatherings—six or more people—are illegal and people should not be participating in them. Also, the strain it puts our police officers under has been seen this weekend, whether in London, Glasgow, Leeds or Manchester. That is simply not right. We have to do more collectively to make sure we can stop the spread of the virus and protect our police.

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP) [V]]

I think we can all unite in condemning the violent actions at the weekend—they were totally deplorable—but we must not allow those actions to detract from the genuine concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement. I am beginning to lose count of the number of reports and reviews there have been during my five years in Parliament. What will the Prime Minister’s cross-departmental review achieve that the others have not, and what can the Home Secretary say to allay my fears that it is just a populist exercise to make the Government look busy rather than an attempt actually to change anything?

[Priti Patel]

I am disappointed with the tone of the hon. Gentleman’s question. I refer him to what I have said already. The purpose of the review and of the Government’s work is to drive actions and outcomes and to address many of the core issues that hon. Members across the House have been raising. These are legitimate issues that we should collectively be working together to address, and that is what the Government and the Prime Minister will be doing.