Police need to “stick to catching the bad guys” and stop “pandering to identity politics”, the Home Secretary has said.
Suella Braverman also issued a warning to protesters that she would “keep putting you behind bars”, if they cause serious disruption.
Speaking on the main stage at Conservative Party conference, the Home Secretary accused the left of wanting to replace “profound, elemental values” with “the poison of identity politics”, adding that this “distracts our public servants from doing their real job”.
She added: “That’s why it is not only wrong for the police to take the knee.
“It is wrong for them to join in with political demonstrations; it is wrong for biologically male police officers to strip search female suspects.”
She went on: “It is not just that pandering to identity politics is a huge waste of time. They need to stick to catching the bad guys.”
“More Pcs, less PC,” the Home Secretary added.
However, Ms Braverman added she was “immensely proud of our police”, telling the conference hall in Birmingham: “Many on the left want to defund the police. Well I say to the militants, I say to the anarchists and the extremists: I will always back our policemen and women.”
In a drive to promote “common sense policing”, the Home Secretary said: “That means that the mob needs to be stopped.
“The police must have all the powers that they need to stop protesters who use guerrilla tactics and bring chaos and misery to the law-abiding majority.”
Ms Braverman said it was “not a human right to vandalise property”, adding: “So whether you are Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain or Extinction Rebellion – you cross a line when you break the law. That’s why we will keep putting you behind bars.”
She also told the party conference that overall crime had fallen under the Conservatives, but that she would “never be complacent”.
“Now, the Prime Minister and I want to see homicide, serious violence, and neighbourhood crime fall by 20%,” she added.
The Home Secretary recently criticised Sussex Police for “playing identity politics and denying biology”, after it said it would not tolerate hateful comments about the gender identity of a transgender woman who sexually abused children years before transitioning.
Responding to the remarks, Sussex Police tweeted that it does not “tolerate any hateful comments towards their gender identity regardless of crimes committed”.
“This is irrelevant to the crime that has been committed and investigated,” it added.
