Reform UK’s national police and crime adviser Colin Sutton has warned that the tragedy in Middlesbrough shows why Britain needs a serious crackdown on crime - and why Reform UK is the only party capable of restoring law and order.
On a visit to Middlesbrough Sutton, who is also the elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk, paid tribute to two police officers who were killed in a head-on collision on the A66 in August. He said that a Reform government would back police leaders to be “strong” and “firm”, restoring public confidence that officers are able to do their job.
“The sense of lawlessness that we see throughout the nation has come about because policing has been allowed to become so difficult”, he said. “We reap what we sow.”
Sutton visited Middlesbrough after PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were killed after a Volkswagen Passat carrying five men was driven the wrong way down a dual carriageway, and collided with the officers’ marked armed-response vehicle.
Police had received reports linking the Passat and an associated Volvo XC60 - both believed to have been using cloned number plates - to suspected criminal activity, including cars being deliberately driven into homes.
Cleveland Police has since arrested 24 people as part of its investigation into serious and organised crime in the area. The deaths were followed by further violence, including vehicles being set alight at a memorial event for one of the Passat’s occupants.
These are the consequences of lawlessness for ordinary, working-class communities. Families are being terrorised in their own homes and neighbourhoods are gripped by fear. In parts of the country, crime and disorder have spiralled out of control, with police expected to confront escalating violence without the powers or backing they need.
At Cleveland Police Headquarters, Sutton paid tribute to Blades and Clough.
“Nobody deserves to go to work and not come home to their loved one,” he said. “When police officers die on duty like this, it’s felt by the whole police family.”
He added: “We need police leaders to be strong. We need police leaders to be firm. We need a Reform government to make real change and make sure that Britain becomes the country that it once was.”
Only Reform UK can clear up lawless Britain. Reform would restore visible policing, give officers the confidence to use stop and search to take weapons off the streets, and introduce tougher sentences - including mandatory minimums for serious and repeat offenders. A Reform government would also build new prison capacity, end early release for violent criminals, sex offenders and knife offenders, and deport foreign criminals to serve their sentences abroad.
Watch the full video here:
On a visit to Middlesbrough Sutton, who is also the elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk, paid tribute to two police officers who were killed in a head-on collision on the A66 in August. He said that a Reform government would back police leaders to be “strong” and “firm”, restoring public confidence that officers are able to do their job.
“The sense of lawlessness that we see throughout the nation has come about because policing has been allowed to become so difficult”, he said. “We reap what we sow.”
Sutton visited Middlesbrough after PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were killed after a Volkswagen Passat carrying five men was driven the wrong way down a dual carriageway, and collided with the officers’ marked armed-response vehicle.
Police had received reports linking the Passat and an associated Volvo XC60 - both believed to have been using cloned number plates - to suspected criminal activity, including cars being deliberately driven into homes.
Cleveland Police has since arrested 24 people as part of its investigation into serious and organised crime in the area. The deaths were followed by further violence, including vehicles being set alight at a memorial event for one of the Passat’s occupants.
These are the consequences of lawlessness for ordinary, working-class communities. Families are being terrorised in their own homes and neighbourhoods are gripped by fear. In parts of the country, crime and disorder have spiralled out of control, with police expected to confront escalating violence without the powers or backing they need.
At Cleveland Police Headquarters, Sutton paid tribute to Blades and Clough.
“Nobody deserves to go to work and not come home to their loved one,” he said. “When police officers die on duty like this, it’s felt by the whole police family.”
He added: “We need police leaders to be strong. We need police leaders to be firm. We need a Reform government to make real change and make sure that Britain becomes the country that it once was.”
Only Reform UK can clear up lawless Britain. Reform would restore visible policing, give officers the confidence to use stop and search to take weapons off the streets, and introduce tougher sentences - including mandatory minimums for serious and repeat offenders. A Reform government would also build new prison capacity, end early release for violent criminals, sex offenders and knife offenders, and deport foreign criminals to serve their sentences abroad.
Watch the full video here:
