TORIES' NEW RECRUIT LEAVES JUSTICE POLICY IN TATTERS.

TORIES' NEW RECRUIT LEAVES JUSTICE POLICY IN TATTERS.


SENTENCING COUNCIL WILL DELIVER SENTENCES THAT FIT THE CRIME

Responding to remarks on the Politics Show by the Tories’ new recruit from Labour, Paul McBride, where he totally undermined the party’s justice policy by suggesting there wouldn’t be mandatory sentencing for knife crime and only a "presumption", SNP MSP Angela Constance – a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee – said:

“For weeks, if not months, the Tories have been presenting their policy as mandatory sentences for knife crime. But their new recruit, who they have been parading as a champion of their supposed approach to crime, has totally undermined that policy in one fell swoop.

“He didn’t say the policy would be mandatory but a 'presumption'. This is not the impression they were giving to anti-knife campaigners last week.

“One fundamental question is whether Annabel Goldie agrees with her party’s new recruit?

“The proposed new sentencing council is the best way forward to deal with the issue of knife crime in particular and sentencing in general. Sentencing guidelines will help deliver more consistent and transparent sentencing with a judicially-led Sentencing Council to help inform judges of the views of the public and victims.

“In contrast, the Tories are all over the place and standing against proper sentencing guidelines across the board to ensure that the punishment fits the crime. We want to give victims and police a voice to ensure that the punishment always fits the crime.

“It is the Tories who are against that tough approach and Paul McBride has now left them having to defend their own self-styled soft-touch approach to sentencing.”