Blunkett plea to Lib Dems on police vote

The future of policing is too important to be radically altered by people voting on whips’ orders without understanding the impact of the changes, the Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough MP said.

Ministers are determined to force through their proposals to put elected commissioners – with powers to hire and fire chief constables – in place next year, despite the Lords rejecting the plans last week and calls for the proposal to be piloted in a small number of areas first.

But critics fear the commissioners will politicise the police, and Mr Blunkett called for “common sense to prevail” and for the Lords’ concerns to lead to the legislation being changed.

“The Government briefings indicate they think the House of Lords will capitulate if they return the proposition to them from the Commons,” said Mr Blunkett. “I hope that isn’t the case. It’s really important that people who understand the issues – and many of those speaking in the Lords had real hands-on experience – will prevail.

“It’s not good enough people saying ‘I don’t know anything about this’. This isn’t something they should go and say ‘we’ll just vote on party lines’.”