LABOUR BACKTRACKS ON KNIFE CRIME WITH UNDERHAND PETITION.
DECEIT MARKS COLLAPSE OF LABOUR’S JUSTICE POLIC.
Labour have been accused of backtracking on their justice policy after attempting to quietly drop their support for unworkable "mandatory" sentencing.
Labour's decision to drop the unworkable and ineffective idea has been revealed after a series of documents were produced by the party calling for "minimum" sentencing
A copy of the petition was recently re-sent to Labour MSPs and said:
“We - the undersigned - support Scottish Labour’s call for a minimum sentence for knife criminals in Scotland.”
W hen the petition was launched in 19th May 2009 a screen grab from the Scottish Labour party’s YouTube website clearly shows the petition says:
“We - the undersigned - support Scottish Labour’s call for a MANDATORY sentence for knife criminals in Scotland.”
As part of that campaign the Labour party were clearly saying they would support mandatory prison sentences for anyone carrying a knife with the slogan: “Carry a knife, go to jail”.
However this phrase – along with any mention of mandatory sentences - has been notably absent from statements made by their Justice spokesperson Richard Baker who has only referred to introducing “a minimum sentence for knife thugs”.
Commenting on Labour's decision to abandon their unworkable policy Stewart Maxwell MSP, a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee, said:
"Labour have been deceiving people across the country. Their approach to justice policy is not about tackling the problems - simply winning headlines.
"It is the SNP that is delivering real action against knife crime, cracking down on the gangs, putting more police on the streets and educating our young people of the dangers of knife carrying. Knife crime has fallen across Scotland and we are not just jailing more knife criminals we are jailing them for longer.
“The underlying fact is that mandatory sentencing has no support from those fighting knife crime in the frontline - the police don't want it - even Labour politicians in London don't want it.
"We need to tackle knife crime with policies that work - not rhetoric.
“ Labour's actions on this issue have been underhand and outrageous, they have misled those people who signed this petition believing Labour supported sending anyone to prison for simply carrying a knife. The fact is that they don’t and the alteration of this petition is a despicable way to treat those people.
“It now looks like Labour’s Richard Baker is in retreat on this issue. It shows how their justice policy is collapsing under this clear and scheming deceit.”
