Keir Starmer responds to free speech row after journalist quizzed & tells cops to ‘focus on what matters to communities’
They say it is being treated as a criminal matter but she said she was told it is both a non-crime hate incident and an allegation of inciting racial hatred.Sir Keir, in Brazil today for the G20 summit, told reporters: “Firstly, obviously, this is a matter for the police themselves.Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson revealed that Essex Police quizzed her about a tweet from November 2023.The backlash grew as it emerged children as young as nine and people at work are being investigated for so-called non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs).The PM waded into the free speech row after a journalist was quizzed over a year-old deleted message.Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said police should focus on “investigating crimes”.
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Essex’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst stoked the row by asking if probing non-crime hate incidents was “the best use of officers’ time”.SIR Keir Starmer has told cops to focus “on what matters to communities” — not on tweets.“I think that as a general principle the police should concentrate on what matters most to their communities.”The Home Office said it was reviewing whether the current process “strikes the right balance”.
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