Reform UK gets first police and crime commissioner after Tory defection

Independent

6 hours ago

Reform UK has announced its first police and crime commissioner after a defection from the Conservative Party was unveiled at a press conference.
Rupert Matthews, who holds the post in Leicestershire and Rutland, was introduced on Monday as having joined the party from the Conservatives.
Before being elected in 2021, he served two years as as a European Parliament member for the Tories. He told the event at the Reform UK headquarters in Westminster he had been a Conservative member for more than 40 years.
Mr Matthews was quick to turn his fire on modern crime policy, where he said police officers were all too often working with 'one hand tied behind their back'.
He said: 'I daily face a fight against crime. I see ordinary, hard-working people burgled, robbed and mugged. Shoplifting is getting out of control. Anti-social behaviour is turning too many of our town centres into an apocalyptic wasteland of lawless Britain.'
Mr Matthews said the 'dark heart of wokeness' needed to be removed from the criminal justice system. He said politicians in Britain had taken inspiration from 'Lebanon and Libya' for their policies.
He said: 'It's almost as if they've looked at countries like Lebanon and Libya, the policies that have led to them becoming failed states and thought 'that looks good, let's try that here in Britain'.'
He continued: 'The self-serving, self-entitled liberal elite who have let our country down time after time after time, are now on notice. Their day is almost done. Be they Conservative or Labour governments, everyone knows our politicians have failed us all.
'They have let this country down. They have let the British people down. Enough. Now is time for Reform.'
Mr Matthews, who has previously written books about UFOs and aliens, was mocked by political opponents.
The Prime Minister's political spokeswoman said: 'Their big defection is very interesting, the fantastical and the unexplained.
'It's no surprise he's added Reform's fiscal plans to that list.'
A Liberal Democrat source said: 'Elected Conservatives are becoming more and more like UFOs themselves – they're rarely if ever seen, and most people don't believe in them.
'Never mind life on Mars, it's unclear if there's life in the Conservative Party.'
The party also announced retired prison governor of Wormwood Scrubs, Vanessa Frake-Harris MBE, had joined the party and would be contributing to its law and order taskforce. Ms Frake-Harris, who joined the prison service in 1986, detailed increases in escapes, attacks on prison officers and increases of drugs, weapons and mobile phone finds in the last year.
She said: 'Successive governments, Conservative and Labour, have driven the prison service to its knees. Through lack of investment, support and an unwillingness to allow people who know what they are doing to get the job done.'
She continued: 'Our prisons are in a crisis caused by Labour and the Conservatives. What have their solutions been? They have let out 10,000 prisoners out of jail early. To let criminals out of jail before they even serve their full sentence is a disgrace.'
A Labour spokesperson said: 'It's farcical that Farage can't say what his policies are, how much they would cost, or how they would even work. Reform aren't serious and don't have a clue as to how they would address the challenges facing working people.'
The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.