Home Secretary Criticised For Pulling Out Of Police Conference

HOME Secretary Priti Patel has been criticised for pulling out of appearing at the Police Superintendents’ Association conference.

The Home Secretary was supposed to speak in person at the conference on 14 September, but she sent a pre-recorded video instead, saying that she had “crucial votes” in parliament.

Ms Patel still hasn’t responded to the Police Federation’s concerns on pay, after the PFEW pulled out of the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB).

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “In my view, this is a very childish way to deal with it. Police officers are daring to criticise the things that we’ve got a right to be critical of and a right to be unhappy about, and there’s no engagement from the Government in actually dealing with it.

“We’ve got to work together on this, whether we agree or disagree. There needs to be work done to try and make something fairer all round. I can’t believe the Government would want this relationship to completely break down, because that’s not going to help anybody. They need to start engaging with us, because this is quite an unprofessional and petty attitude.”

Steve criticised the way that the Government selectively picked which policing events to attend, but he said he thought they should continue to attend police memorial and bravery events, otherwise it would be “punishing officers”.

He said: “We have to rise above it and be seen to be the people who actually want to contribute to the relationship. We need to keep trying to reopen that dialogue with our MPs and the Home Secretary, and keep that gentle pressure on.”

Some MPs were on side with the police on the pay issue, Steve added. He said: “Not everybody is united against us, thankfully.”