SCP call to sack Home Secretary

22/05/2008

The Senior Citizens Party is caling on Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to resign for "betraying the police force, on whom the whole country depends for the fight against increasing crime".

 

Party Leader Grahame Leon-Smith says that she has "deliberately reneged on the Government's agreement to honour the Independent Pay Review Body's recommendation for a pay increase of 2.5%. 

 

"Her pathetic attempt to justify her betrayal by claiming that: 'I took (this decision) only after a lot of thought, after considering the full facts of the case, the need to keep mortgages and the cost of living under control - and that includes your mortgages and your families' cost of living as well' demonstrates utter hypocrisy.

 

"A sum as low as £30 million could not possibly have any effect on mortgages and the cost of living, whereas the latest estimates reveal that the Government is wasting £101 billion a year, it immediately finds nearly £3 billion to cover up its incredible 'mistake' over the 10% tax band, and it is deliberately increasing its revenue from fuel tax - already the highest in Europe - which is quite unnecessarily increasing the cost of living for everyone."

The Party is also pointing up the difference in the Government's approach with the teachers.

 

"The Government is happy to honour the Independent Pay Award for teachers, who do have the right to strike (and did so immediately afterwards!) by giving them a 2.5% rise, yet it refuses the same percentage to the police who have agreed not to strike, and who have a considerably more dangerous job. 

 

"The Senior Citizens Party believes that all three emergency services, police, ambulance and fire, should give up their right to strike because striking would inevitably lead to the deaths of many innocent civilians, BUT . . . both the Government and the employees must accept and implement their Independent Pay Awards. 

 

"For the Government to renege on such an agreement demonstrates their total lack of honesty,integrity and credibility, and under such circumstances the Home Secretary has no alternative but to resign."