Cooper demands new watchdog for police after Hillsborough row

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Labour Party conference that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) must be replaced with a stronger organisation that will raise policing standards while undertaking proper investigations into allegations of corruption or when fatal mistakes are made by officers.

The West Yorkshire MP also used her keynote address to accuse the Government of being “weak on crime” due to its programme of police cuts, claiming that Labour is now “the party of policing” in the wake of the Andrew Mitchell affair.

“Weak on crime, weak on the causes of crime – that is David Cameron’s Conservative Party,” she said. “Cutting the police, undermining communities, swearing at officers, turning their backs on victims. It is Labour Party that is now the party for policing. Labour the party for law and order.”

Ms Cooper called for new laws to ensure the Serious Fraud Office can pursue bankers and economic crime, and new action to tackle domestic violence – highlighting statistics which show two women are killed every week by a partner.

“I feel very strongly that more action is needed fast,” the Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford MP said.

Former chief of the Metropolitan Police Lord Stevens is currently undertaking a review of the policing service for Labour, and will report back ahead of its policy review in the new year. But Ms Cooper said the party has already decided that in the wake of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report – which revealed a full-scale cover-up within South Yorkshire Police stretching back more than 20 years – and other recent scandals it is time to replace the IPCC with a more powerful body.

“It took too long to get a new (phone) hacking investigation underway,” she said. “It took too long for the truth to come out about what happened to Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protest. And it took far, far, far too long for the truth to come out about the tragedy and senior police cover-up at Hillsborough. Liverpool needs justice – but we also need to make sure no-one ever, ever again has to fight for the truth for 23 years after losing a loved one or child.”

The IPCC, she said, had failed in each of those high-profile cases.

“We need reform,” she said. “After discussion with Lord Stevens, I believe we need a new stronger Police Standards Authority – replacing the IPCC – to raise standards, pursue powerful investigations and ensure there are proper safeguards in place.”

Shadow Policing Minister David Hanson told the Yorkshire Post the new body would deliver the transparency that the Hillsborough panel finally achieved after a 23-year battle by the families of those who died.

“For a future Labour Government, we want to see much greater transparency and accountability for the police so that things like Hillsborough can be investigated much more quickly and more easily,” he said. “The level and the type of investigation that go on, we want to look at how that can be strengthened, so that the accountability and openness that we’ve had with Hillsborough of late is something that would be established at an earlier stage.

“We’ve got to work this through in practice, but essentially it hasn’t worked at Hillsborough. Information was not put in the public domain, and we’ve got to look at how we strengthen that.”