Blair pledges intruder law review as law and order tops PMQs
Tony Blair has said that the Government will be conducting a review into whether the law needs changing on the level of force an individual can use against an intruder.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Question Time this lunchtime, Mr Blair told MPs that in the light of public concern the issue would be re-examined.
The Conservatives have been championing a private members bill which would seek to amend the existing law so that householders would only be prosecuted if they used “grossly disproportionate” force against an intruder. Currently the law allows a householder to use “reasonable force”.
Responding to questioning from Michael Howard, the Prime Minister said that he would support a change in the law if agreement is reached after consultations with the Crown Prosecution Service, Attorney General and Police Commissioners.
Stressing that the Government is “on the side of the victim not the offender”, Mr Blair added that: “I entirely share and understand the concerns and hope we can reach agreement on it”.
Hitting back the Conservative leader claimed that: “Where the Tories lead, the Government follows” and demanded to know why the Government had not believed this was necessary before.
Mr Blair repeated that he wanted to “try and reach a sensible agreement on this” and dismissed the “absurd point scoring” of the Opposition. He joked: “I gave him the answer he did not expect in answer to his first question”.
Law and order in general was the key topic in the debate, with the Tories determined to try and re-establish themselves as the party of law and order. The Prime Minister though countered with a whole host of statistics showing that crime is falling and there are record police numbers.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the position of David Blunkett came up. Quoting from the Daily Mail, Mr Howard – to laughter from his own benches – read out a whole host of unflattering comments supposedly made by Mr Blunkett about his cabinet colleagues.
These included the suggestion that the current Foreign Secretary – and former Home Secretary – Jack Straw had left the department in a “giant mess”.
Responding, Mr Blair sought to compare the two government’s records, saying: “People remember not the comments but the record, and it is the record of his [Mr Howard’s] time in government we will concentrate upon in the election”.
