New Home Secretary needs to ‘turn things around’

THE new Home Secretary has a great opportunity to ‘turn things around’ according to South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Zuleika Payne.

Sajid Javid took on the post last month following the resignation of Amber Rudd.

And Zuleika says he has two options when it comes to policing; carry on with the ‘status quo’ or try to head in the right direction.

She’s hoping he’ll choose the latter.

“I suppose the question about whether he’s got a difficult job on his hands or not can be looked at two ways.

“We can either remain as we are, in this broken dismantled state or he can do the very difficult job of trying to turn the ship around and actually head in the right direction.

“To do the right thing by us will be to do the latter, it won’t be easy, but we’re at crisis point – something has to be done.”

It’s emerged that Mr Javid, MP for Bromsgrove, has a relative in the force, a factor which Zuleika hopes will help him understand the pressures police are under.

“It could be insightful,” she said.

“When you are related to or close to someone who is in the organisation it doesn’t take long to realise the harsh realities of policing and what being a police officer entails.

“It would be encouraging if he was willing to embrace that and have those conversations with the Police Federation, in order to do business with us.

“We need to push policing in the right direction so that ultimately we don’t fail the public,” she added.