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Crime and (political) punishment
Boris Johnson has long had form as a political pilferer. From nicking Ken Livingstone’s London cycle hire plan to flirting with Ed Miilband’s mansion tax, Johnson likes to pick a pocket or two when it comes to populist policies. Heck, he’s even purloined Jeremy Corbyn’s focus on new cash for bus services.
Of course, all successful leaders co-opt their opponents’ best plans and discard the worst, but this PM is particularly shameless about it. Soon after he entered No.10 last summer, he even lifted the phraseology of the Labour politician he most loves to hate: Tony Blair.
“We need to be tough on all the causes of crime. But that effort is hopeless unless we are simultaneously tough on crime itself,” he said in August. It wasn’t as snappy as Blair’s “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” but the strategy was clear. And how apt that this act of political theft was all about law and order.
Last month, the PM went further with his Blairite approach, telling his Cabinet that “every department should be a criminal justice department”. Again, that was all about tackling the causes of crime, from poor education to community engagement, from welfare to healthcare.
The twin-track approach is central to Johnson’s pitch to the voters. He clearly believes Labour can’t match him on being ‘tough’ on crime itself, and the Tories wooed the ‘Red Wall’ seats with longer sentences as much as they did with messages on Brexit, immigration and NHS cash. But he also wants to tell ‘liberal’ voters he is investing cash in 20,000 police officers and tackling those ‘causes’ of crime.
Many Labour MPs believe that under Jeremy Corbyn the party effectively vacated the pitch on law and order. Yes, in 2017 he managed to make police cuts a live issue in the counter-terrorism debate. However in 2019 it often seemed to his critics that Labour was focused only on the ‘causes of crime’ bit of Blair’s formulation, rather than the ‘crime’ bit.
With knife crime at a record high under the Tories, there are obvious merits in pointing out its complex causes including cuts to youth services, but some in Labour think it’s now time to give the police better tools. It got little notice at the time, but readers of the LabourList website last year found that a majority wanted further use of ‘stop and search’ police powers, contrary to the party’s official policy.
As for counter-terrorism, there are signs that Labour isn’t going to oppose this week’s new emergency legislation to end automatic release of convicted terrorists. Diane Abbott said today that bringing in the parole board was a good idea and Opposition backing was likely if ministers “confine themselves to the way they administer the sentence” rather than retrospective changes to the length of sentence.
Some MPs think that the arrival of Keir Starmer as leader would make Labour even stronger on crime and counter-terrorism in the eyes of voters they need to win back, while not junking its record on civil liberties and on the causes of crime. Starmer has come under fire from some on the Left for his crackdown on benefits cheats when he was DPP, but his supporters believe that such measures capture perfectly the need to tackle hardened criminals who rob the state.
Starmer’s direct experience too of handling sensitive intelligence and of dealing with counter-terrorism could give Labour invaluable credibility on an issue where its MPs have spent the last five years hiding behind their hands in the Commons. Rebecca Long-Bailey may also be tempted to carve out a tnew emphasis on crime-fighting.
Whoever wins the leadership is expected to reward shadow policing minister Louise Haigh, who has spent years building support among rank and file cops, with the shadow Home Secretary post. Haigh seems never to have forgotten that the primary victims of crime are often the poorest and most vulnerable in working class communities (and that many cops are natural Labour voters). Many on the Labour benches are relishing her taking on Priti Patel across the despatch box.
Perhaps because he can see Labour gearing up to present more of a fight on law and order, the PM seems determined to appear ‘tougher’ than ever on crime. That may explain why Home Office minister Kevin Foster today sounded utterly tone deaf on the issue of Windrush and connected worries from MPs like David Lammy about the planned deportation flight of 50 criminals to Jamaica tomorrow.
Foster repeatedly refused to give details of whether any of those involved had lived in the UK since arriving as children, or the lesser offences for which they were convicted. Instead, he suggested to a string of Labour MPs from black and minority ethnic backgrounds that they were doing a disservice to the Windrush generation by comparing midwives and nurses to convicted rapists and drug dealers.
The news tonight that the deportation flight could be stopped by the Court of Appeal could give ministers a way of saving face, and accepting that the whole thing could be put on ice until after the ‘lessons learned’ report into Windrush is finally published. But Foster’s words in the Commons point to another possible reaction. Despite all the racial sensitivities, will the government accuse the judges, as well as Labour MPs, of being more interested in the rights of criminals rather than the rights of their victims?
That would be a reminder that Johnson really won’t hesitate to use any means necessary to keep Labour out of office. It would also perhaps reinforce the need for the Opposition to win back sufficient political capital on crime-fighting and security that is vital for getting a hearing on its traditional agenda of civil liberties and the causes of crime.
With at least four years likely until the next election, there are bound to be more blunders by both the Home Office and Ministry of Justice. And an Opposition worth the name will have to capitalise on such errors, not least as it cannot win any votes in parliament or defeat any new legislation, as part of a wider narrative about a tired Conservative administration and the need for change.
Quote Of The Day
“It’s criminality, not nationality that counts”
Home Office minister Kevin Foster defends plans to fly deported criminals to Jamaica
Monday Cheat Sheet
Campaigners believe the planned deportation to Jamaica of more than 50 people cannot go ahead after a Court of Appeal ruling.
Home secretary Priti Patel apologised in the Commons to Yvette Cooper after Tory activist Joshua Spencer was jailed for sending messages threatening to pay “crackheads” £100 to beat up the Labour MP.
Communities secretary Robert Jenrick activated the emergency Bellwin flood reimbursement scheme for councils in Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Cumbria affected by Storm Ciara.
Government officials have started work to make Boris Johnson’s plan for a bridge from the British mainland to Northern Ireland a reality, No.10 confirmed. Nicola Sturgeon said that of all the bridges promised by Johnson “he hasn’t delivered..a single one of them”.
David Lammy, the vice-chair of Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign, said it was “categorically” untrue to claim that its staff had taken part in “data-scraping” of Labour members’ data.
Train drivers’ union Aslef announced it was endorsing Rebecca Long-Bailey for Labour leader, and Angela Rayner as deputy. Long-Bailey said she was committed to opposing Tory plans to bank strikes on railways.
What I’m Reading
Qasem Soleimani And How Nations Decide To Kill - New Yorker
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