POLICE CHIEF DEMOLISHES LABOUR’S KEYSTONE BY-ELECTION POLICY

POLICE CHIEF DEMOLISHES LABOUR’S KEYSTONE BY-ELECTION POLICY

SNP’s TOUGH KNIFE CRIME POLICY ALREADY WORKING

The SNP candidate in the forthcoming Glasgow North East by-election, David Kerr, has welcomed comments by Stephen House, the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, demolishing the credibility of Labour’s knife crime policy.

Reported in the Scotland in Sunday Chief Constable House warned that the prison system would go into meltdown if Labour’s measure was introduced.

Commenting David Kerr said:

“Crime is a major issue on the doorsteps in Glasgow North East and people feel let down by decades of Labour failing to tackle this scourge on our community.

"Willie Bain's keystone policy in this by-election has crumbled. They only have themselves to blame for ignoring all the experts who said it was unworkable and for trying to mislead voters with their petition.

“Not only is their policy unworkable, it is also totally inconsistent with the position of the UK Labour government at Westminster who are not proposing mandatory sentencing for carrying a blade.

Glasgow SNP MSP Anne McLaughlin added:

"Labour's knife crime policy is unravelling by the day. They do not speak with any credibility on this serious issue and it is a view clearly shared by the Chief Constable of Strathclyde.

"The facts is that knife crime in 2008-09 was 11 per cent down on the level the SNP inherited from Labour. It is Labour’s failure to tackle this issue for over 70 years in Glasgow that is the real scandal.

"It is the SNP Government which is taking the tough action on those who carry and use knives, as well as delivering a record number of police officers to catch them, a 30-year low in recorded crime, and tough action to take weapons off our streets.

“And we’ve seen jail terms for knife carrying increase by a third, while the Justice Secretary has made clear that those who use a knife should expect to go to jail. Labour’s campaign is just looking like the usual misleading scaremongering we have all come to expect from a party struggling to come to terms with its loss of power and decades of failure.”