Braverman hits out at officers taking the knee or dancing with protesters as she orders impartiality review

Suella Braverman has ordered a probe into police impartiality as she raised concerns about officers “pandering to politically correct causes”, taking the knee and dancing with protesters.

The home secretary ordered an impartiality review by Andy Cooke, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, into “initiatives that are not meeting the priorities that the public expect of the police”.

Giving examples of the kind of conduct she has concerns about, she also said police should not refer to rapists as “she” or “her”.

“I’ve instructed the chief inspector to look more closely at this issue and to see what effect it’s having on public confidence on perceptions with the police and effectiveness,” she told The Telegraph.

Ms Braverman is seen as a divisive figure in the “culture war” arena as she once railed against the “tofu-eating wokerati”.

She was previously reported to have intervened over a case in which five officers were sent to seize a collection of golliwog dolls from a pub by reprimanding the force involved.

She told the paper she had “gratitude, admiration and thanks” for the vast majority of officers, but added: “Police deserve respect, they deserve public confidence – but in too many instances that confidence has been eroded and needlessly damaged.”

In her three-page letter posted on X (formerly known as Twitter), she wrote a comprehensive list of activities that she deemed inappropriate for the force to take part in.

She wrote: “Recently, there have been cases when we have seen officers attending members of the public’s properties over perceived offence taken at gender-critical views on social media; failing to take action against threats of violence made by trans activists directed at biological women; attempting to enforce non-existing blasphemy laws in the name of ‘community cohesion’; dancing and fraternising with political marchers; waving the ‘Progress flag’ (which symbolises highly contested ideologies) or painting police cars in its colours, siding with the highly political Black Lives Matter movement by taking the knee; apologising for being ‘institutionally racist’ which is an unhelpful and inaccurate term; or encouraging the uptake of highly contested ideologies like critical race theory, gender ideology, or eco-extremism, as useful frameworks for policing.”

But the Police Federation of England and Wales said the government wants its members to “act like robots” in a response to the home secretary’s probe.

“Policing should never be put on any political agenda and is too important to be kicked around like a political football,” deputy chairwoman Tiffany Lynch said.

“Our members want to go out there and serve communities in the best way possible, but need help when the government constantly changes the goalposts.

“One minute they want police officers to be more involved, the next, they want them to act like robots.”

open image in gallery

Labour criticised Ms Braverman for commissioning a report “into her own political obsession”, and the Liberal Democrats accused her of using the police “as a weapon in her culture war”.

A Labour spokesperson said: “Instead of setting out serious practical policies to tackle Tory failures, all the Home Secretary is doing is commissioning reports into her own political obsessions – and while she’s doing this, more criminals are being let off and more victims are being let down.”

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: “For the Home Secretary to use the police as a weapon in her culture war while criticising them for being political is a new low – even by her standards.”

Ms Braverman’s announcement comes at the end of the government’s “crime week” of linked announcements – part of its summer recess policy blitz, after “small boats week” and “health week”.