The sad death of Sarah Everard, in London last week, has brought into sharp focus the safety of women in the UK. This was then followed by disturbing scenes on Saturday evening as Police sought to break up a gathering of people on Clapham Common.
I fully understand the concerns, and even anger, that many
people have expressed at the scenes as reported, and there are certainly
questions that need to be answered as to how the events unfolded. I am pleased
that the Home Secretary has responded quickly and asked for an independent,
lessons to be learned, report from the Inspectorate of Constabulary. It is
right that we wait for this report before jumping to conclusions about the
events of Saturday night.
The Police have a very difficult job at this time, as they
seek to keep up safe in the middle of a pandemic. They have some incredibly
difficult decisions to make every day. It is very easy for us, 250 miles away,
to jump to conclusions based on pictures on social media. But I believe we
should allow the full details of that night to be reported and then we can
consider how they should be viewed and what lessons there are to be learnt.
We must also not allow these events to cause us to lose
sight of the tragedy of Sarah Everard’s death. It is deeply concerning that too
many women do not feel safe walking the streets of our country, particularly at
night. I am pleased that the government already has plans in place to increase
sentencing and provide greater safety for women in our country. But it is also
right that we look again to ensure we are doing all we can to protect everyone
in our country.
We also need to keep everything in perspective, particularly
here in Cornwall, where we continue to have among the lowest crime figures in
the country. We are fortunate to live where we do and we should never take for
granted that relatively speaking, our streets are the safest in the country.
This week the government also introduced a new Bill into the
House of Commons that seeks to strengthen the law in a number of important
areas. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a major piece of
legislation that covers a broad number of areas. One part of it particularly
has caused concern in the media regarding the clauses that help the Police to
be able to take action to prevent protests from unreasonably disrupting the
lives of ordinary people.
I have witnessed for myself too many times in recent years
when our capital city has been held to ransom by organisations determined to not
just protest peacefully, but to cause the maximum damage and disruption to our
economy and people’s lives.
It is absolutely right that the Police have the powers they
need to stop these type of protests from happening. This Bill does not remove
our rights to peaceful protest as some are trying to make out. The powers in
the Bill put into statute and clarify long established principles that the
right to protest does not allow anyone the right to disrupt law abiding
citizens from going about their business.
Some have tried to tie the measures in this Bill to the
events on Saturday night. This is incorrect and those seeking to do so are,
deliberately or through misunderstanding, misrepresenting the facts. The steps
taken by the Police on Saturday were taken under the emergency powers they have
been given to keep us safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bill going through
Parliament has been many months in the making. It is not in any way connected to
what happened at the weekend.
The right to peaceful demonstration in our country is a
foundation of our democracy. I will always defend that right and all those who
seek to exercise it. But what I will not accept is those who seek to destroy
our democracy, damage private and public property, and the livelihoods of
others in the name of protest. This Bill strikes the right balance and I am
grateful that the government is bringing these measures forward.
