Sunak is 'opposed to transparency' over police league table plans, says minister

27 July 2022, 10:18

Kwasi Kwarteng explains why police league tables could revolutionise crime

Rishi Sunak is "opposed to transparency" over Liz Truss's plans to introduce league tables for police forces, Kwasi Kwarteng has told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast.

Ms Truss has announced the government will publish league tables showing how police forces are performing against the national trend on a set of key crimes.

Kwasi Kwarteng, who is supporting her campaign, told Nick it was "a really good idea" and said Mr Sunak was against the plans because he was "opposed to transparency".

Read more: Tory leadership debate cancelled after presenter Kate McCann faints on air

Read more: James O'Brien slams right-wing media endorsement of Tory PMs

"I don't see why Rishi Sunak is opposed to transparency," Mr Kwarteng said.

"I think in all other walks of life we expect to be able to see how well services that are being provided to us, how well they're performing.

"I think this is a really good idea, being able to show the public what actually is happening in policing in their area, and they can then see over time whether things are getting better or whether things are getting worse and from that sort of information you can make better decisions about police and crime commissioners and also you can hold people to account better with transparency."

'Is the govt waging a war on workers, minister?'

He hit back at claims league tables would draw unfair comparisons between forces with vastly different challenges.

"What you want to be able to do as a member of the public is actually see how your force is performing," he said.

Read more: Nadine Dorries mocks Rishi Sunak over £3.5k suit as MP slams 'embarrassing' Tory race

Read more: Rishi Sunak pledges annual refugee cap as Liz Truss vows to expand Rwanda plan

"No one's saying that this one will be worse than another, what we are saying is that the badly performing areas could do better and over time they will do better.

"Just as if you're a parent you can see how well schools are performing, I think if you're a member of the public you should be able to see how well police authorities are performing as well."

'Next time we speak will you be Chancellor?'

Ms Truss and Mr Sunak are the final two candidates in the Tory leadership contest.

After a series of hustings over the summer, one will go on to be the next Prime Minister in September.

Ms Truss' plan for policing also involves requiring crimes such as murder, violence and crimes being cut by a fifth.

Read more: Voters think Sunak would be better PM than Truss, new poll shows

Read more: Truss pledges to review all EU laws as Sunak vows to tackle NHS backlog

Chief constables who fail to achieve that will need to explain to ministers how they intend to improve their figures.

Ms Truss is also planning a crackdown on police forces that spend money on "identity politics", for example by undergoing training programmes from Stonewall.

Mr Sunak said her plans were just 'reheated government policies'.