Rhys Jones: David Cameron accused of trouble-making

Sep 7 2007 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

HOME Secretary Jacqui Smith yesterday accused David Cameron of undermining efforts to cut violent crime by claiming Rhys Jones’s murder was evidence of “anarchy in the UK”.

Speaking to the Daily Post, Ms Smith said the Tory leader was not only wrong to suggest law and order was breaking down but, more importantly, made people believe all was hopeless.

That made it harder for police to win the trust and confidence of the communities whose co-operation was needed to take on the gunmen.

Describing it as a “terrible tragedy”, Ms Smith agreed the killing of 11-year-old Rhys would become symbolic in the way James Bulger’s murder did.

But, far from symbolising a nation that had lost its way, she was determined it would start a fightback that would prevent the violent loss of young lives in the future.

The Home Secretary said: “My disagreement with those politicians, particularly, I have to say, David Cameron, who want to ally the terrible tragedy of what happened to Rhys with the idea that we have a completely broken society, or there’s anarchy in the UK, is that it’s wrong.

“But, more seriously than that, I think that sort of argument prevents you from concen-trating on the geographical areas, and the specific actions, that will work and that will make a difference. It under-mines the confidence of the sorts of communities that need to engage, need to give information, need to be active, in order to help us all solve that sort of crime.”

Ms Smith insisted violent crime was at its lowest for a decade, and that a person’s chances of being a victim of any crime were smaller than for 25 years.

Asked about the impact of the 11-year-old’s killing, Ms Smith said: “Rhys’s murder, because of the nature of that tragedy, will become something that people will think of and it will become symbolic.”

But it would symbolise a turning point, “rather than a general despair that there’s nothing that we can do and the whole country is awful and all young people are running amok because that genuinely isn’t true”.

However, Ms Smith appeared to contradict Gordon Brown’s pledge, earlier this week, that the police would be given “greater powers” to cut off the supply of guns.

Instead, she suggested there would simply be a new focus on identifying gun suppliers, using existing powers to “take those people and the guns they’re supplying off the streets.”

Ms Smith added: “There is not a magic solution to this. Trust me, if I thought there was, we would be doing it by now.”