Home Affairs and Justice

I hold no particular brief for the Conservatives' proposals, but the hon. Gentleman's reference to the Brixton and Merseyside riots is complete tosh. If he scoured the Scarman report, he would be unable to find any suggestion that the causes of those riots included ““populist policies”” being followed by local politicians or, in the case of the Metropolitan police, by the late Willie Whitelaw, who was the antithesis of a populist.