PM: Stop and search ‘kind and loving’ way to get weapons off streets
The prime minister has defended plans to widen police use of stop and search powers, describing it as a “kind and loving” way to get dangerous weapons off the streets.
Speaking as the government set out its new Beating Crime Plan for England and Wales, Boris Johnson said stop and search was not a “strong-arm” tactic and plays an “important part in fighting crime”.
The blueprint includes a permanent relaxing of conditions on the use of Section 60 stop and search powers, which allow officers to search someone without reasonable grounds in an area where serious violence is expected.
The conditions on use of stop and search powers will be ‘permanently relaxed’ under the new plan
“They are not the only tool that we have got to use. They are part of a range of things we have got to do to fight street crime,” the PM said when asked about stop and search during a broadcast pool clip.
“I think that giving the police the backing that they need in law to stop someone, to search them, to relieve them of a dangerous weapon – I don’t think that’s strong-arm tactics, I think that’s a kind and loving thing to do.
“The people who often support stop and search most passionately are the parents of the kids who are likely themselves to be the victims of knife crime.”
Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News earlier, policing minister Kit Malthouse defended the plans to relax rules on the use of police stop and search.
He said that although it is not a “long-term solution” it can have a “big impact on suppressing knife crime” in the short term.
But human rights organisation Liberty has said easing the restrictions will “compound discrimination”.
Mr Johnson, who made the comments during a visit to Surrey Police headquarters alongside Home Secretary Priti Patel, also said he wanted hi-vis “chain gangs” to act as a deterrent against anti-social behaviour.
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Police pay freeze is ‘tough’
The PM said he wanted those who engage in such behaviour to be “properly paying their debt to society”, adding: “Somebody’s anti-social behaviour may be treated as a minor crime but it could be deeply distressing to those who are victims.
“If you are guilty of anti-social behaviour and you are sentenced to unpaid work, as many people are, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be out there in one of those fluorescent-jacketed chain gangs visibly paying your debt to society.
“So you are going to be seeing more of that as well.”
Other measures contained in the government’s plan include the creation of league tables for 101 and 999 call answering times so the public can see how quickly their local force is responding to calls for help.
The initiative will also ensure every neighbourhood in England and Wales is allocated a named and contactable police officer dedicated to serving their area.
But the PM is facing anger from police officers over elements of the plan, as well as a pay freeze.
The Police Federation of England and Wales passed a motion of no confidence in the home secretary last week
John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, will deliver a letter to Downing Street on Tuesday.
“Police officers are sick of gimmicks. Sick of underfunding. Sick of mixed messaging putting police at risk. Sick of government contempt for police,” it says.
“It’s time for a total reset of police-government relations.”
The body, which represents more than 130,000 officers from the rank of constable to chief inspector, passed a motion of no confidence in the home secretary last week in a row over pay.
Surrey Police Federation criticised the pair’s visit, with chairwoman Mel Warnes saying: “Our colleagues should not be used as public relations pawns by politicians.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel during a visit to Surrey Police headquarters in Guildford, Surrey
“I very much doubt any of our colleagues will be smiling at the thought of meeting two people who have decided against giving them any sort of pay rise despite everything police officers across the country have done these past 18 months.
“Police officers have given everything. The government has given us nothing.”
Other measures proposed include:
• The 24 hour-a-day monitoring of burglars and thieves using electronic surveillance
• Permanently relaxing conditions on the use of stop and search powers to take more knives off the streets
• Getting offenders to clean up streets, alleys, estates and open spaces
• A new £17m package for Violence Reduction Units to divert individuals away from violence
• Rolling out two further rounds of the Safer Streets Fund including increased lighting and CCTV
• Enhancing the role of Police and Crime Commissioners by giving them the tools they need to drive down crime
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Labour accused the government of being “all talk and no action” on crime and offering “rehashed policies” that “won’t make our streets safer”.
“On their watch, police numbers are down and community policing has been decimated,” shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said.
“Coupled with an insulting pay freeze, it is no wonder frontline police have declared no confidence in the home secretary.
“There are already targets in place for emergency response times and having named officers in wards is not enough to make up for the devastating scale of Conservative cuts to community policing that drove police numbers down by 21,000.
“Little wonder that, on their watch, anti-social behaviour is rocketing, there are record low convictions for rape, and violent crime is devastating communities across the country.”
US Representative Stephen Lynch pressed Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michelle Bowman on Tuesday over her past remarks encouraging banks to “engage fully” with digital assets, questioning the Fed’s role in advancing crypto frameworks while showing confusion over the definition of stablecoins.
In a Tuesday oversight hearing, Lynch asked Bowman, the Fed vice chair for supervision, about remarks she had made at the Santander International Banking Conference in November. According to the congressman, Bowman said she supported banks “[engaging] fully” with respect to digital assets.
However, according to Bowman’s comments at the conference, she referred to “digital assets” rather than specifically cryptocurrencies. The questioning turned into Lynch asking Bowman about distinctions between digital assets and stablecoins.
The Fed official said that the central bank had been authorized by Congress — specifically, the GENIUS Act, a bill aimed at regulating payment stablecoins — to explore a framework for digital assets.
“The GENIUS Act requires us to promulgate regulations to allow these types of activities,” said Bowman.
While the price of many cryptocurrencies can be volatile, stablecoins, like those pegged to the US dollar, are generally “stable,” as the name suggests. Though there have been instances where some coins have depegged from their respective currencies, such as the crash of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin in 2022, the overwhelming majority of stablecoins rarely fluctuate past 1% of their peg.
Related: Atkins says SEC has ‘enough authority’ to drive crypto rules forward in 2026
Bowman said in August that staff at the Fed should be permitted to hold small “amounts of crypto or other types of digital assets” to gain an understanding of the technology.
FDIC acting chair says stablecoin framework is coming soon
Also testifying at the Tuesday hearing was Travis Hill, acting chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The government agency is one of many responsible for implementing the GENIUS Act, which US President Donald Trump signed into law in July.
According to Hill, the FDIC will propose a stablecoin framework “later this month,” which will include requirements for supervising issuers.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
Over a third of people think Rachel Reeves exaggerated economic bad news in the run-up to the budget – twice as many as thought the chancellor was being honest, a new Sky News poll has found.
Some 37% told a YouGov-Sky News poll that Ms Reeves made out things were worse than they really are. This is much higher than the 18% who said she was broadly honest, and the 13% who said things were better than she presented.
This comes in an in-depth look at the public reaction to the budget by YouGov, which suggests widespread disenchantment in the performance of the chancellor.
Just 8% think the budget will leave the country as a whole better off, while 2% think it will leave them and their family better off.
Some 52% think the country will be worse off because of the budget, and 50% think they and their family will be worse off.
This suggests the prime minister and chancellor will struggle to sell last week’s set-piece as one that helps with the cost of living.
Some 20% think the budget worried too much about help for older people and didn’t have enough for younger people, while 23% think the reverse.
The poll found 57% think the chancellor broke Labour’s election promises, while 13% think she did not and 30% are not sure. Some 54% said the budget was unfair, including 16% of Labour voters.
And it arguably gets worse…
This comes as the latest Sky News-Times-YouGov poll showed Labour and the Tories are now neck and neck among voters.
The two parties are tied on 19% each, behind Reform UK on 26%. The Greens are on 16%, while the Liberal Democrats are on 14%.
This is broadly consistent with last week, suggesting the budget has not had a dramatic impact on people’s views.
However, the verdict on Labour’s economic competence has declined further post-budget.
Asked who they would trust with the economy, Labour are now on 10% – lower than Liz Truss, who oversaw the 2022 mini-budget, and also lower than Jeremy Corbyn in the 2019 election.
The Tories come top of the list of parties trusted on the economy on 17%, with Reform UK second on 13%, Greens on 8% and Lib Dems on 5%. Nearly half, 47%, don’t know or say none of them.
Only 57% of current Labour voters say the party would do the best job at managing the economy, falling to 25% among those who voted Labour in the 2024 election.
Some 63% of voters think Ms Reeves is doing a bad job, including 20% of current Labour voters, while just 11% of all voters think she is doing a good job.
A higher proportion – 69% – think Sir Keir Starmer is doing a bad job.
Paul Atkins, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said that the agency can continue advancing digital asset regulation without legislation from Congress, signaling his expectations for the industry in 2026.
In a CNBC interview released on Tuesday, Atkins said the SEC was providing “technical assistance” as Congress considered legislation for digital asset regulation, likely referring to the market structure bill working its way through the US Senate. Atkins said that although the agency’s operations were impacted by the longest US government shutdown in the country’s history, he continued to make progress on “rules that are focused on helping [the crypto] sector.”
“We have enough authority to drive forward,” said Atkins. “I’m looking forward to having an innovation exemption that we’ve been talking about now. We’ll be able to get that out in a month or so.”
Atkins, whom the US Senate confirmed to chair the SEC in April after his nomination by US President Donald Trump, has taken steps to reduce the number of enforcement actions against crypto companies, including by issuing no-action letters for decentralized physical infrastructure networks.
His actions align with many of the policy directives from the White House under Trump, who has issued several executive orders touching on crypto and blockchain.
Related: Republicans urge action on market structure bill over debanking claims
The SEC chair rang the opening bell at the NYSE on Tuesday, outlining his plans for the agency “on the cusp of America’s 250th anniversary.”
US regulators are still awaiting progress on a market structure bill
Lawmakers on the US Senate Agriculture Committee and the Senate Banking Committee are taking steps to move forward with a digital asset market structure bill, which will outline the regulatory authority of agencies, including the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, over cryptocurrencies.
Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott said that the committee planned to have the bill ready for markup in December.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
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