United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces revolt over new homelessness law
A lot of colleagues believe that the bill as it stands is completely unacceptable because it would have the effect of criminalising people who have no choice but to sleep on the streets. We are urging ministers to think again, says Tory MP Bob Blackman
PTI London Published 01.04.24,
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces a potential revolt from within his party ranks over new legislation that is set to criminalise homelessness and hand police powers to crack down on rough sleepers on the country’s streets.
According to a report in ‘The Times’ on Monday, several Conservative Party MPs have warned that they will vote against the measures in the Criminal Justice Bill, which is currently going through the House of Commons and set to become law before a general election expected later this year.
The proposals, which had been unveiled by former Indian-origin home secretary Suella Braverman, would mean rough sleepers in England and Wales could be fined as much as 2,500 Pounds or face prison terms.
“A lot of colleagues believe that the bill as it stands is completely unacceptable because it would have the effect of criminalising people who have no choice but to sleep on the streets. We are urging ministers to think again,” said Tory MP Bob Blackman, who is also joint secretary of the powerful Conservative backbench 1922 Committee
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former deputy prime minister Damian Green are among the other Tory MPs who have signed amendments that would remove the new police powers. Green said he supported Blackman’s amendment because it represented “a practical way forward to help people off the streets” rather than criminalising them.
“People are not homeless because they want to be. These plans are even worse than the vagrancy act that was first introduced after the Napoleonic wars that this is supposed to be replaced,” an unnamed Tory MP was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
The Criminal Justice Bill is designed to present the Conservatives as tough on crime as it prepares for a gruelling general election campaign, with the odds stacked against the governing party due to intense anti-incumbency sentiments.
The proposals within the legislation include expanding police powers to test suspects for drugs on arrest and enter premises to search for stolen goods such as mobile phones. It would also give probation officers the power to administer lie-detection tests to sex offenders and terrorists after their release from prison and also increase sentences for some offences.
However, ministers are concerned the bill will be overshadowed by controversies such as the homelessness debate.
“That’s just part of the things we’re looking to do in terms of making sure that people don’t sleep on the streets and that’s not right, we want to provide the resources for people, housing, improving the number of refuges people can sleep in, and the amount of social housing and affordable housing, which we’ve done,” said UK Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake.
Polly Neate, chief executive of the homelessness charity Shelter, stressed that the legislation was unfair.
“Instead of punishing people for being homeless, politicians should be trying to prevent them from ending up on the streets. Everyone at risk of sleeping rough should have a right to suitable emergency accommodation, and to end homelessness for good it must invest in genuinely affordable social homes – we need 90,000 a year,” she said.
A lot of colleagues believe that the bill as it stands is completely unacceptable because it would have the effect of criminalising people who have no choice but to sleep on the streets. We are urging ministers to think again, says Tory MP Bob Blackman
PTI London Published 01.04.24,
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces a potential revolt from within his party ranks over new legislation that is set to criminalise homelessness and hand police powers to crack down on rough sleepers on the country’s streets.
According to a report in ‘The Times’ on Monday, several Conservative Party MPs have warned that they will vote against the measures in the Criminal Justice Bill, which is currently going through the House of Commons and set to become law before a general election expected later this year.
The proposals, which had been unveiled by former Indian-origin home secretary Suella Braverman, would mean rough sleepers in England and Wales could be fined as much as 2,500 Pounds or face prison terms.
“A lot of colleagues believe that the bill as it stands is completely unacceptable because it would have the effect of criminalising people who have no choice but to sleep on the streets. We are urging ministers to think again,” said Tory MP Bob Blackman, who is also joint secretary of the powerful Conservative backbench 1922 Committee
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former deputy prime minister Damian Green are among the other Tory MPs who have signed amendments that would remove the new police powers. Green said he supported Blackman’s amendment because it represented “a practical way forward to help people off the streets” rather than criminalising them.
“People are not homeless because they want to be. These plans are even worse than the vagrancy act that was first introduced after the Napoleonic wars that this is supposed to be replaced,” an unnamed Tory MP was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
The Criminal Justice Bill is designed to present the Conservatives as tough on crime as it prepares for a gruelling general election campaign, with the odds stacked against the governing party due to intense anti-incumbency sentiments.
The proposals within the legislation include expanding police powers to test suspects for drugs on arrest and enter premises to search for stolen goods such as mobile phones. It would also give probation officers the power to administer lie-detection tests to sex offenders and terrorists after their release from prison and also increase sentences for some offences.
However, ministers are concerned the bill will be overshadowed by controversies such as the homelessness debate.
“That’s just part of the things we’re looking to do in terms of making sure that people don’t sleep on the streets and that’s not right, we want to provide the resources for people, housing, improving the number of refuges people can sleep in, and the amount of social housing and affordable housing, which we’ve done,” said UK Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake.
Polly Neate, chief executive of the homelessness charity Shelter, stressed that the legislation was unfair.
“Instead of punishing people for being homeless, politicians should be trying to prevent them from ending up on the streets. Everyone at risk of sleeping rough should have a right to suitable emergency accommodation, and to end homelessness for good it must invest in genuinely affordable social homes – we need 90,000 a year,” she said.
As Jess Phillips pointed out on social media, he is a leader who was "beaten by a woman who was beaten by a lettuce", after all...
by Jack Peat
2024-04-02 09:12
in Politics
Ian Forsyth/PA
Rishi Sunak was blasted by a BBC Radio Tees presenter after he laughed off calls for a general election.
The prime minister, who has been dubbed “Squatter Sunak” due to his reluctance to go to the polls, recently shut down suggestions that there could be a general election to coincide with local elections in May.
Despite pledging an election this year, the PM was clearly in no mood to call a spring election with the economy in dire straits and the Conservatives failing on the vast majority of their five pledges for Britain.
As Jess Phillips ruthlessly pointed out here, there are other reasons why Sunak might be harbouring a degree of fear about going to the electorate.
In the original battle to replace Boris Johnson, he was beaten by Liz Truss, who famously had a shorter shelf life than a lettuce, per the Daily Star campaign.
Here’s the PM shutting down any hope that a general election could be in the offing.
January 2025, anyone?
Labour could axe all hereditary peers from House of Lords, reports suggest
GOOD!
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