HOME Secretary Priti Patel blasted a top cop over his threat to snoop on the British public’s shopping baskets during the coronavirus lockdown in an exclusive interview today.
Priti, 48, made the comments while speaking to The Sun’s Executive Editor Dan Wootton on his talkRADIO Drivetime show this afternoon.
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She came on air just minutes after leaving today’s emergency Cobra meeting and gave her first and only interview since the lockdown began.
When asked about the comments made by Northamptonshire’s Chief Constable Nick Adderley in a press conference, where he warned the public officers would stop and search their trolley’s if they failed to adhere to the current lockdown measures, she said: “That is not appropriate, let me be clear about that.
“I work with the police and leadership every day of the week and have been since this crisis and leading up to this crisis
“That is not the guidance or the measures we have been adopting thus far.”
She went on to ask the public to adhere to the lockdown over the Easter weekend and praised the public for their reaction to measures put in place by the government so far.
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Priti said: “I think what we should say about this weekend in particular, the weather is going to be good, it is Easter. We all need to take responsibility here. This is not about overreach.
“We had scurrilous stories a few weeks ago about officers snooping through baskets and removing Easter eggs and that became a trading standards issue.
“That is not what the police are there to do. As I said the police are there for public order.
“I will be very candid, not everyone will get this right. It will take a few weeks to have these measures bed in.
“We want our public spaces to be respected and utilised in the right way.
“This is not about heavy handed law enforcement. I pay credit to the police, and the majority of the British public – these are extraordinary times.
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“But the fact of the matter is, if you’re having a party or having a mass gathering do not be surprised if the police come up and ask you to stop.
“The police are using a common sense approach. Enforcement will always be used as a last resort.”
In her interview Priti went on to accuse Yvette Cooper of playing politics and insisted she had given the Labour MP a date to appear in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
When asked if she was concerned if Yvette wanted to publicly quiz her over bullying allegations made before the start of the crisis, and whether she wanted to deny those on the record, Priti answered: “This is not what this is about at all.
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“I have offered the chair of the committee regular briefings throughout this pandemic, including access to classified material.
“It is disappointing to see this at the time of the crisis when I have already offered a date. There is politicking going on.
“When you look at the work of the Home Office during this pandemic, by making 111 calls free of charge, through the extension of NHS visas, to various things we’ve been doing across fraud, cyber, national security, policing every single day and the help we are giving to the front line – a lot of that is self evident.
“I quite frankly think it is politicking, when we have given access to the entire committee to the department, to myself in terms of another date.
“I just think it’s politics basically.”
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Priti also went on to give up an update about Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is spending his fourth night in intensive care in St Thomas’ hospital this evening.
She said: “He is doing well from what we’re hearing, but we should take great heart that he is in the care of the NHS. We are rooting for him. He is really great, we just want him to get well now.”
“I spoke to him last week, around the last cabinet meeting and then it was clear he was unwell and that he needed rest and recoup.
“He has been working flat out leading us through this, we need to give him the time and space to recover. We wish him well.”
During the interview Priti went on to say the government were considering new measures to help domestic violence victims and confirmed she would be laying out the plans next week.
She said of domestic abuse victims on lockdown with their partners: “This is an absolute priority for the police.
“I have spent a lot of time speaking to charities and third parties and also the victim’s commissioner.
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“There is a lot of work taking place, I have already been resourcing this area. But of course the longer the pandemic continues there will be all sorts of issues around people staying at home and victims of abuse being with their perpetrators. We are finding other ways we can give them the support but also ways we can do more in prevention and protection.
“I have been doing a lot of work with this sector and charities about how we can improve our response and get resources out there on the front line in different ways. I will be outlining these in the days to come but I can assure you that when it comes to vulnerable children and domestic abuse victims there is a lot of cross government work taking place.”
Priti also discussed the increased threats to the public from online fraudsters since the beginning of the pandemic.
She said: “I spend every day looking at threats and risks to homeland security. We are seeing all sorts of things but we are especially seeing new threats from online harms and threats in terms of cyber fraud and breaches of cyber security.
“As a result there are more protective measures we are undertaking. For example we are seeing a lot more financial fraud online. We are seeing more activity in the space and sphere on online harms particularly around vulnerable people and children and I am working with the National Crime Agency on this right now.
“The wrong types of people, perpetrators of crime are at home and are spending a lot of time on the internet, so a lot of work is taking place across the whole of law enforcement, the crime agency, our security and intelligence services as well.
“We absolutely are on it.
“I will be very candid, they themselves are facing challenges themselves in terms of how they are working.
“Across the policing and intelligence community they are incredible in what they are doing but the intelligence they are being fed in – we are actually seeing less crime but they are actually dealing with more crime because they are able to see more crime, perhaps in a way in which they haven’t been able to previously.”
