CIVILIANS COULD HANDLE POLICE WORK, SAYS ANN WIDDECOMBE

Ann Widdecombe has said a lot of police work could be undertaken by civilians.

Speaking on GB News, Ann Widdecombe said:

“[The polling] continues a trend that’s been going on for some time. We’ve been rising in the polls steadily and we overtook the Tories some time ago.

“We’ve been neck and neck with Labour for a long time, and now it looks as if we really have gone ahead of them.

“It’s one poll but there are other polls at the moment still showing us neck and neck so clearly we’re moving in the right direction, and we have been doing so consistently, really, ever since the general election itself.”

Discussing the local elections, Ann Widdecombe said:

“I believe that any postponement of an election to be wrong, except in very extreme circumstances. We had all these issues when we had the huge outbreak of foot and mouth a few years ago.

“When there’s something which can impact on movement then sometimes there’s a discussion, not even necessarily then a decision, a discussion as to whether you postpone an election.

“But simply to postpone some of them on the highly specious grounds that, oh well, we’re going to have a reorganisation so there’s no point in having the election, that is wholly wrong.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I don’t think it’s entirely coincidental that a lot of those postponements are where Reform would do well.

“So, yes, I think you can challenge the government and you can say that it’s interfering with democracy.

“If they were going to reorganise councils tomorrow morning, there would be every sense in the world in saying, ‘Hold on.’

“They’re not doing that. We could have an election and then they get round to the organisation. It could take a couple of years between now and then.”

Discussing retail crime, the former Home Office minister said:

“Well, we have to stop it all through more determined policing, which means more visible policing on the streets.

“It means the police actually taking shoplifting seriously, which they don’t at the moment.

“We had the incident only a week or so ago when somebody was robbed. She had every last device. She could supply the camera footage, she could supply the number of the car but the police still weren’t interested until she made a fuss on social media.

“Reform have promised 40,000 [more police] over the course of the parliament; you can’t do 40,000 in five minutes.

“I myself think that is only the start.

“We also need to reorganise what they’re doing. There’s far too much bureaucracy, a lot of it could be handled by civilians. I was saying this back in 1998.

“This is not new. It’s far too much bureaucracy, far too much procedure, far too little actual policing.

“So it isn’t just the numbers, it’s what they’re doing. You can have 40,000 stuck in the back room filling out forms – no good.”

Ends

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