The UK home secretary has been accused of being “dangerously complacent” in tackling the major failings within the police service highlighted in the damning Casey review and urged to suspend immediately all officers being investigated for domestic violence and sexual assault claims.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the Commons that Suella Braverman’s response to the 300-page report into the culture within the Metropolitan police was a continuation of the “hands-off” approach at the Home Office that Louise Casey has criticised.
In a statement that contained no details of new action to be taken by the Home Office in response to the seismic report, Braverman said it was vital the public did not face a threat from the police themselves.
“Those who are not fit to wear the uniform must be prevented from doing so, and where they are revealed, they must be driven out of the force and face justice,” she said.
Cooper echoed calls from women’s rights groups for all police officers facing domestic abuse and sexual assault allegations to be suspended suspended and criticised Braverman for her hollow response.
“I am concerned that the home secretary’s statement is dangerously complacent,” she said. “Astonishingly there is no new action set out in her response, simply words saying that the Met must change. This is a continuation of the hands-off Home Office response that Baroness Casey criticises in her report.
“Some of the issues raised are particular to the Met because of its size, history, particular culture, where the home secretary and mayor are jointly responsible for oversight and where the commissioner is responsible for delivering. But the report also raises serious wider issues for the Home Office.”
Cooper questioned how the government would tackle misogyny, homophobia and racism highlighted in the Met police when Braverman had urged officers not to focus on “woke” issues.
“The home secretary rightly says she wants discrimination tackled in all its forms, but she has been telling police forces the opposite and telling them not to focus on those issues,” she said. “So where is her plan now to turn that around? Where is the Home Office plan in response to this?”
Cooper also called on the government to set out how it would address officers accused of domestic abuse and sexual assault in police forces across the UK.
“It is a disgrace that there still are not mandatory requirements on vetting and training underpinned by law, that misconduct systems are still too weak,” she said.
“I urge her to commit now that anyone under investigation for domestic abuse or sexual assault will be automatically suspended from their role as a police officer and that anyone with any kind of history of domestic abuse or sexual assault will not be given any chance to become a police officer.”
Braverman responded by accusing Cooper and her party of “political point-scoring”, a line she has used in previous debates.
