Oral Answers to Questions

Matt Hancock Excerpts

Wednesday 16th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I strongly support the British police. They are the finest force in the world. What the police and other public servants know is that we were left a deep Budget deficit that we have to deal with. If we want to keep police officers on the streets, it is necessary to have the pay freeze that we are talking about. It is necessary to look, as Tom Winsor has done, at the allowances that they receive and to work out how we can make sure that we have well-paid, well-motivated police officers doing a great job in our country. Again, if the Labour party is just going to stand against every reform, every change and every improvement and say there is nothing we can do about any one of these problems, not only will it be irrelevant, but the British public will work out that it is irrelevant.

[Matthew Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)]

Last night there was a violent double murder in Beck Row in Suffolk, which was the most serious in a series of incidents in the area. Will the Prime Minister assure me, and the residents of west Suffolk, that these crimes will be fully investigated, that their perpetrators will face justice and that everywhere in this country must be subject to the rule of law?

[The Prime Minister]

I can certainly give my hon. Friend that assurance. This is a very disturbing case, and I am sure that hon. Members will all have heard about it this morning on the news. I think the police will want to do everything they can to get to the bottom of this dreadful crime and to bring the perpetrators to justice.