Kemi Badenoch highlights government indecision impacting police work
Kemi Badenoch will argue that Government indecision regarding the early release of Pc Andrew Harper’s killers made his colleagues’ jobs harder, reports BritPanorama.
Addressing the Police Federation, the Conservative leader will assert that the role of a police officer has been “made harder” in recent years. Prime Minister Andy Burnham initially opposed calls for further restrictions on the early release scheme after it emerged that Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, convicted in 2020 of Pc Harper’s manslaughter, would qualify for release next year.
In response to public backlash, the Government subsequently announced that any conviction for unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter and death by dangerous driving, would result in exclusion from early release. Bowers and Cole, who received 13-year sentences, were passengers in the vehicle that dragged Pc Harper down a country road during a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019.
Ms Badenoch is expected to convey in her speech: “The job of a police officer is to catch criminals and keep our streets safe. That is what the public expects. And it is also why people join the police. I know that in recent years your job has been made harder.”
She will also note that “Pc Andrew Harper’s colleagues’ jobs were made harder when they were told his killers were going to be released early from prison.” The Prime Minister had previously promised to do “everything possible” to prevent Bowers and Cole from being released under the scheme designed to relieve prison overcrowding.
Extra prison space will now be achieved by deporting foreign offenders and ending indefinite jail terms, an issue the media has continuously spotlighted over the past two years. In her speech, Badenoch will argue that police officers have not received the backing they deserve.
“In recent years we have too often failed to recognise sacrifice and service,” she will say, lamenting that “people in this country are becoming too scared to wade in, too scared to do the right thing.”
