• HMICFRS report: Met police needs new leadership not stitch up by Johnson and Patel
• Oligarch ditches UK mansions after government sanctions delay
• Nationality and Borders Bill: A traffickers’ charter that will cause deaths in the Channel
• Patel must stop her assault on British rights and freedoms

HMICFRS report: Met police needs new leadership not stitch up by Johnson and Patel

Responding to the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) into corruption in the Met Police and the case of Daniel Morgan, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

This shocking report lays bare the ingrained culture of corruption and cover-up at the top of the Met. Police officers put themselves at risk every day to keep us safe, but they are being let down by poor leadership.

The Met urgently needs strong new leadership. Choosing the new Commissioner is too important to be a stitch up between Priti Patel and Boris Johnson – especially when Johnson is under criminal investigation by the Met himself.

The next Commissioner must be someone who will shake things up and stand up to government ministers – and that’s someone Johnson and Patel will never choose.

That’s why Liberal Democrats are calling for a cross-party confirmation vote by both Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee and London’s Police and Crime Committee, to stop the Government stitching up this crucial appointment.

Oligarch ditches UK mansions after government sanctions delay

Responding to reports that Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov was able to offload his UK properties before UK sanctions came into effect, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Layla Moran MP said:

The Conservative Government’s dither and delay on sanctions has meant that Putin’s cronies have once again gotten away with it. It took Ministers weeks to put the proper sanctions into place – meanwhile, it looks like oligarchs were fire-selling their assets all that time.

Where oligarchs have transferred their holdings to their families, those relatives must be immediately sanctioned. Putin’s cronies’ properties and assets in the UK should now be seized – funding an oligarch tax to help people with spiralling energy bills.

Nationality and Borders Bill: A traffickers’ charter that will cause deaths in the Channel

Following votes in the House of Commons on the Government’s Nationality and Borders Bill, where Conservative MPs voted to overturn cross-party amendments passed in the Lords, Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron said:

Priti Patel’s Anti-Refugee Bill is a traffickers’ charter. By voting for it, Conservative MPs have voted for deaths in the Channel.

Taking away any safe and legal route for refugees to reach the UK will only force them to take dangerous ones.

The real problem is entirely a structural one of incompetence in the Home Office, and this Bill will do nothing to fix it. It will only make it worse.

The UK has a glorious, centuries-old reputation as a place of sanctuary. We will not let that be sullied by this puny little Government.

Patel must stop her assault on British rights and freedoms

Following votes in the House of Lords to restore amendments protecting the right to protest, that were overturned by the Government in the Commons last month, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:

Today the Liberal Democrats have struck another blow against the Conservatives’ anti-democratic attempts to silence any opposition and trample people’s fundamental rights.

Now that Peers from all parties have defeated Priti Patel’s draconian proposals for a second time, surely Conservative MPs must now think again. The Government should listen to police officers and the public, and stop their assault on British rights and freedoms.

The right to peaceful assembly and protest is a crucial part of the UK’s democratic society. Liberal Democrats will always fiercely defend it.