Women will never forgive Philip Allott’s repugnant views and cowardice over Sarah Everard murder

WOMEN and girls across North Yorkshire will never again believe or trust the county’s under-fire police, fire and crime commissioner following his ‘repugnant’ response to Sarah Everard’s murder, his predecessor warns today.
Former North Yorkshire Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan says her successor Philip Allott will never regain the confidence of women and girls.Former North Yorkshire Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan says her successor Philip Allott will never regain the confidence of women and girls.
Former North Yorkshire Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan says her successor Philip Allott will never regain the confidence of women and girls.

Julia Mulligan – who, herself, was the victim of a rape attack when aged 15 years – says it is now “far too late” for her successor Philip Allott to restore his reputation as calls for him to resign mount.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad
North Yorkhire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Philip Allott is facing mounting calls to resign.North Yorkhire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Philip Allott is facing mounting calls to resign.
North Yorkhire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Philip Allott is facing mounting calls to resign.

This is the first time that she has spoken out since Mr Allott caused outrage over a week ago after suggesting that women needed to be more “streetwise” in the wake of the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah by a serving Metropolitan Police officer.

He ventured that Sarah, a 31-year-old marketing executive whose family come from York, should have resisted arrest when confronted by Pc Wayne Couzens by Clapham Common, London.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad
The abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer continues to prompt much national soul-searching.The abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer continues to prompt much national soul-searching.
The abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer continues to prompt much national soul-searching.

In an exclusive column for The Yorkshire Post, she also condemns the decision of North Yorkshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Panel to meet in a ‘virtual’ format next Thursday – rather than in a public setting where Mr Allott, and colleagues, can hear the serious misgivings of women.

“Taking refuge behind a screen is cheap, cowardly, and hardly shows a willingness to reflect and learn,” she writes in today’s newspaper.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Her intervention comes as a senior Labour politician backs this newspaper’s call for ‘recall’ legislation – the law that allows MPs to be held to account by voters when their conduct falls short of the standards expected of them – to be extended to crime commissioners.

The abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer continues to prompt much national soul-searching.The abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer continues to prompt much national soul-searching.
The abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer continues to prompt much national soul-searching.

Provisional proposals were debated in 2014 before falling by the wayside, leaving no means open to North Yorkshire’s crime panel – headed by county council leader Carl Les – or residents to remove Mr Allott from his £74,000 a year post unless he chooses to resign.

Draft laws debated in Parliament seven years ago could have triggered ‘recall’ elections if a Police and Crime Panel “passed a motion of no confidence” in their respective commissioner.

This threshold would also me met if local councils representing “at least half the population of the police area” also backed a no confidence move.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Dan Jarvis, the outgoing South Yorkshire metro mayor and Labour MP for Barnsley Central, hopes MPs can persuade the Government to re-introduce the legislation.

“It is important that crime commissioners are subjected to the same ‘recall’ laws that are applied to MPs,” he said.

Meanwhile Mr Allott issued another apology yesterday for his comments – just a day after he conceded himself that they were “repugnant”.

He said it was not “the kind of language”that he would normally use and he was “horrified” that so much offence had been caused.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However he said he had come to the conclusion that his resignation would serve little benefit to the people of North Yorkshire. “No, I will not as it is more important to carry through the mandate I was elected to do,” he told the BBC.

He also appeared dismissive of the 800 letters of complaint received by his office, calls for his resignation from, amongst others, the Bishop of Ripon, and the 9,000 signatories of a petition calling on him to quit – even though the public are powerless to intervene.

Mr Allott pointed out that he was elected by over 80,000 people – more than any MP in North Yorkshire. It prompted a former colleague of the commissioner to contact this newspaper and describe the latest response as “just appalling”.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app, receive exclusive members-only offers and access to all premium content and columns. Click here to subscribe.

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.