New Home Secretary Must Back Police Officers

The new Home Secretary James Cleverly needs to back officers and ensure there is continued investment in the police service, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Mr Cleverly was appointed to the role after Suella Braverman was sacked, following her letter to The Times in which she accused the police of “playing favourites” by tolerating left-wing protests and cracking down on right-wing ones.

The national Police Federation of England and Wales said it was “urgently seeking a meeting” with Mr Cleverly to address the issues being faced by police officers, including poor pay and working conditions.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “My message to James Cleverly is that the Government needs to continue investing in policing. We need to continue on the journey of levelling up police officer pay to where it should be, and we need a Home Secretary who is going to actually back our police officers and back what we do.

“That includes holding the IOPC to account, holding the CPS to account, and actually giving officers a bit of protection for doing the job that they’re honestly doing.

“Nobody wants corrupt officers and we support any move to remove them from the police. But what we shouldn’t be seeing is an aggressive campaign by previous Governments, the Mayor of London and some Labour politicians to reform police conduct regulations so that even officers who make a genuine mistake could be dismissed from the organisation. That is not acceptable.”