London ‘is a safer place’ without Chris Kaba, says Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick
Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick has said London “is a safer place” without Chris Kaba and he wants to raise the threshold for prosecuting firearms officers.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced on Wednesday firearms officers on trial over police shootings will remain anonymous during criminal proceedings.
She also ordered a review into the accountability of firearms officers – and confidence in policing – after police marksman Martyn Blake was cleared by a jury on Monday of the murder of Chris Kaba in south London in 2022.
Mr Jenrick, who is competing with Kemi Badenoch to be Tory leader, said he welcomed Ms Cooper’s announcement but would “like to go further”.
He told Sky News: “I’d like to see that the bar for criminal prosecutions for firearms officers be raised significantly because… they do an extremely challenging job.
“There are relatively few people who are willing to come forward and do that job today, and those that do should not be worried that when they make those split second decisions, they’ll then get dragged through the mud and through the courts as a result.”
Robert Jenrick said London is a safer place without Kaba
Sergeant Blake’s barrister described Kaba as the “principal gunman” of the Brixton Hill-based 67 gang, which has more than 50 known members.
Mr Jenrick said: “London is a safer place without this man.”
He criticised the Mayor of London for saying he was “mourning Chris Kaba”, adding: “That’s another misjudgement by Sadiq Khan.”
“Nobody should mourn the death of this individual,” Mr Jenrick continued.
“Look at what we’ve learnt about him. Now look at the videos that we’ve seen of him shooting, stabbing.
“This is somebody who was a danger to people across the city. London is a safer place without this man.
“What Sadiq Khan should be doing, given that he has responsibility for the police in this city, is getting behind good police officers like Sergeant Blake, backing them to the hilt and making sure they can get on with their lives and their service to our country.”
Read more:
Why did Chris Kaba’s killer stand trial?
Chris Kaba was core member of gang
After Sergeant Blake was cleared, reporting restrictions were lifted to reveal Kaba was a core member of a notorious south London gang and was accused of shooting a rival in a nightclub days before he was killed.
The 24-year-old, whose street name was “Itch”, arrived at the nightclub in the same Audi Q8 he was driving on the night he was shot, and it was used as a getaway car the night before his death after three masked men fired a shotgun twice outside a Brixton school.
The car was also linked to a shooting in southeast London the year before.
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Chris Kaba linked to gang violence
Kaba was due to face a civil court hearing 10 days after his death, where police would make an application for a gang injunction, which is used to place restrictions on people involved in gang violence.
He had previously been the subject of an interim version of the order, but it had elapsed while he was in prison for other convictions.
Conservative members are voting to elect the party’s new leader – with Mr Jenrick and Ms Badenoch the final two candidates. The winner will be announced on 2 November.
UK health experts and officials have pushed back on Donald Trump’s claim that paracetamol is linked to autism, saying there is “no evidence” for it.
The US president said on Monday that there had been a “meteoric rise” in cases of autism and suggested that the use of Tylenol – an American-branded version of paracetamol – during pregnancy is a potential cause.
His claims have been widely corrected by officials, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who said that “I trust doctors over President Trump, frankly, on this”.
Read more: What is autism?
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Trump links autism with paracetamol
Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine, Mr Streeting said: “I’ve just got to be really clear about this: there is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol by pregnant women to autism in their children. None.”
The health secretary then referenced a major study in Sweden last year that involved 2.4 million children, adding it “did not uphold those claims”.
He added: “I would just say to people watching, don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine.
“In fact, don’t take even take my word for it, as a politician – listen to British doctors, British scientists, the NHS.”
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Trump’s ‘not so careful’ autism claims
WHO says links ‘inconsistent’
Patient safety minister Dr Zubir Ahmed MP echoed this on social media, saying: “For the avoidance of any doubt, Paracetamol remains the safest painkiller to take during pregnancy.”
Dr Alison Cave, chief safety officer at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, also said that “there is no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children”.
She added that paracetamol “remains the recommended pain relief option for pregnant women when used as directed,” and that the MHRA’s advice “is based on rigorous assessment of the best available scientific evidence”.
The British officials were supported by the European Medicines Agency, which said there was no new evidence that would mean its recommendations for the use of paracetamol during pregnancy would change.
Tarik Jasarevic, a World Health Organisation spokesperson, added at a press briefing that the links between the use of the drug and autism “remains inconsistent”.
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Paracetamol & autism: Evidence examined
Trump: Tylenol ‘not good’ for pregnant women
During a press conference with US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Mr Trump urged pregnant women to stop taking Tylenol.
After saying that Mr Kennedy Jr “wants to be very careful with what he says,” the US president added: “Taking Tylenol is not good. All right. I’ll say it. It’s not good.
“For this reason, they are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary. That’s, for instance, in cases of extremely high fever, that you feel you can’t tough it out. You can’t do it. I guess there’s that.”
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Mr Trump then said key vaccinations for newborn babies should be delayed, that combined measles, mumps and rubella jabs should be given separately, and suggested that they are linked to autism.
“They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace,” he added. “I don’t see it. I think it’s very bad.”
Mr Jasarevic pushed strongly back on that claim, saying: “We know that vaccines do not cause autism. Vaccines, as I
said, save countless lives.
“So this is something that science has proven, and these things should not be really questioned.”
The new Solana-based Evo stablecoin pegged to Kazakhstan’s national currency, the tenge, aims to bridge the crypto market with traditional finance.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says the Federal Reserve won’t cut rates until inflation cools, and adds he is “not particularly worried” about stablecoins.
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