Theresa May, the home secretary, has said West Mercia police should take disciplinary action against the three police officers criticised in a report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission for what they said after a meeting with Andrew Mitchell about the “plebgate” affair.1She made the comment when giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.
I have to say I agree that the IPCC statement makes troubling reading, and if it is indeed the case that warranted police officers have behaved in the way Deborah Glass has described, then that is not acceptable at all.
In view of the statement that has been made by the IPCC today, I think it s quite wrong of West Mercia not to take disciplinary proceedings against these officers.
She also said that David Shaw, the West Mercia chief constable, should apologise to Mitchell for what happened to him. The episode undermined public trust in the police, she said.
The police need the trust of the public. These sorts of incident will strike at the heart of that issue of trust.
For many members of the public, they will actually say, well, here was somebody who was a member of parliament, who had been a Cabinet minister, and yet this has happened for that individual and what chance is there for a member of the public?
Jack Straw, the Labour former home secretary and a friend of Mitchell’s, said the IPCC report showed that Mitchell had been the victim of “wholly unacceptable behaviour” by some officers.
The IPCC’s statement today represents a profound vindication for Andrew Mitchell and his family.
It is lamentable but undoubtedly true, as the IPCC has concluded, that Mr Mitchell has been the victim of wholly unacceptable behaviour by some police officers, a wrong compounded by the woeful inadequacy of the police investigation into this misconduct.
I hope that this will at last lead to effective action by the employing police forces concerned, and to Mr Mitchell being able to resume his full contribution to British political life. I also hope that the officers concerned might be big enough to apologise.
Keith Vaz, the chair of the Commons home affairs committee, has said it has summoned David Shaw, the West Mercia chief constable, to give evidence to it about the affair next week.
May has said that for every 100 migrants who come to the UK to work, 23 people living in Britain miss out on a job. This is what she told the committee.
When I came into the Home Office I was told that the previous government’s belief had been that there was no displacement of people’s jobs when immigrants came in to take jobs here in the UK. I asked the immigration advisory committee to report.
And they said indeed there was a displacement …
I think the figure, from recollection, was for every 100 migrants who come into the UK, 23 people living in the UK will not be getting jobs.
May has said that she agrees with what the MI5 chief Andrew Parker said last week about the Guardian’s publication of the Edward Snowden GCHQ revelations being damaging to the public interest.
Royal Mail boss Moya Greene has called for “protections” from strikes as more than 100,000 postal workers prepare to announce plans for industrial action that could take place as soon as 23 October.2 As Rupert Neate reports, in an interview to mark Royal Mail’s first official day as a public company3, Greene said: “We need to start thinking about what sort of protections do we need as a company from our people, from what has been probably too quick an approach to resort to industrial action.”I just think we need to look at alternative ways to resolve disputes,” she told ITV News.
Michael Fallon, the business minister, has indicated that he would support exempting the smallest companies from employment regulations, saying it would encourage them to hire staff.4
The TUC has said that the proposals for cutting EU red tape published by Downing Street today would undermine workers’ rights. This is from Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary.
If the government accepts these recommendations, workers in the UK could end up with less holiday leave and more unpaid hours if they’re on call, while mums will have less time off work to care for their new baby.
None of these policies have anything to do with economic growth and are instead about certain business leaders’ desire to worsen people’s basic working conditions, egged on by the government.
Business surveys show that red tape ranks very low on the list of businesses’ real concerns.
Ministers should instead focus on what really matters – improving access to finance and the state of the economy.
Lord Wallace of Tankerness, the advocate general for Scotland, has been appointed deputy leader of the House of Lords following his election as the Lib Dem leader in the Lords.
Doreen Lawrence has taken her seat in the House of Lords as a Labour peer.5
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
References
- ^ the three police officers criticised in a report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission for what they said after a meeting with Andrew Mitchell about the “plebgate” affair. (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ Royal Mail boss Moya Greene has called for “protections” from strikes as more than 100,000 postal workers prepare to announce plans for industrial action that could take place as soon as 23 October. (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ Royal Mail’s first official day as a public company (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ Michael Fallon, the business minister, has indicated that he would support exempting the smallest companies from employment regulations, saying it would encourage them to hire staff. (www.bloomberg.com)
- ^ Doreen Lawrence has taken her seat in the House of Lords as a Labour peer. (twitter.com)
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