PRITI Patel has confirmed that police will NOT break Christmas Day gatherings after police threatened to raid homes this year.
The Home Secretary blasted the claims made by David Jamieson, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC), who said officers will investigate reports of rule-breaking over the festive period.
“Of course the police will not be doing that, that’s a minority view and that’s a police and crime commissioner expressing his own personal view and opinion,” she told Dan Wootton on talkRADIO’s Drivetime show.
“I speak to policing leaders every day, across the country including chief constables, from the college of policing the NPCC, the real leaders out there that are directing and guiding and helping us put into regulation sensible and practical policing measures, that will keep the public safe in the long run.”
Mr Jamieson said officers will investigate reports of rule-breaking over the festive season.
On October 27, he told The Telegraph: “If we think there’s large groups of people gathering where they shouldn’t be, then police will have to intervene.
“If, again, there’s flagrant breaking of the rules, then the police would have to enforce.
“It’s not the police’s job to stop people enjoying their Christmas.
“However, we are there to enforce the rules that the Government makes, and if the Government makes those rules, then the Government has to explain that to the public.”
He told the paper he fears Covid rules could lead to violence boiling over in the region shortly, with the end of the furlough scheme “very likely” to push people over the edge.
Heavy-handed police closing down celebrations and enforcing restrictions could lead to riots similar to those sparked by the death of Mark Duggan in 2011, he said.
He said: “We’re sitting on a time bomb here.
“We’re getting very near the stage where you could see a considerable explosion of frustration and energy.
“Things are very on the edge in a lot of communities and it wouldn’t take very much to spark off unrest, riots, damage.”
Former party leader Iain Duncan Smith said: “It’s time for the Government to stand down these jobsworth Christmas turkeys.”
Senior Tory MP David Jones said: “All people want is a quiet, happy Christmas with their families. They’ve had a dreadful year, so let’s give them a break.”
Mr Duncan Smith added: “This is utter nonsense. This is not some totalitarian state like China. It’s time for the Government to stand down these jobsworth Christmas turkeys.”
