Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy has warned that “many parts of Government are corrupted by radical identity politics”, which he says is leading to deaths, division and racism. He declared that “Labour’s ideology” on diversity led to the Southport and Nottingham atrocities, and branded the “desire to be representative and inclusive” a “cancer” that needs to be cut out.
Claims of two-tier justice
Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Timothy insisted that a constant desire to “understand” criminals and extremists had led to society “tolerating the intolerant, accepting the unacceptable and excusing the inexcusable”. He said this had led to people forgetting that prisons are about punishing criminals.
The senior Conservative said: “So many parts of government are corrupted by radical identity politics and a deference to clan culture. We can no longer trust our institutions to work for us all, to uphold the principle that justice is blind, that we’re all equal before the law.”
He added: “The faces may change, but the policies live on because this is Labour’s ideology. An ideology with serious consequences in the real world: the Southport killer, Axel Rudakubana, Henry Nowak’s killer, Vikram Digwa, the Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane.”
Failures of the state
Mr Timothy said: “With each of their terrible crimes and many more like them, the failures of the state run deep. A desire to be representative and inclusive has warped and manipulated and led to failure, suffering and injustice. This is a cancer and the next Conservative government will root it out.”
Calocane, who stabbed three people to death in Nottingham in 2023, was not sectioned after mental health teams “considered” research showing black men were overrepresented in detention. Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, repeatedly kicked and punched a door in his student accommodation. Doctors believed it was his first episode of psychosis, but he was released back into the community.
The risk Southport monster Rudakubana posed was played down by professionals because they feared being labelled as racists. Head teacher Joanne Hodson told a public inquiry into the atrocity that she realised the teenager was “very high risk”, with a manner “devoid of any remorse”. But when she tried to raise the risk he posed to others, Mrs Hodson said she was accused by children's mental health worker Samantha Steed of “racially stereotyping [Rudakubana] as “a black boy with a knife”.
Attack on history and institutions
Mrs Hodson told the inquiry that the accusation of “racial profiling” had “effectively shut me up”.
Mr Timothy added, in a bombshell speech, that many on the left of British politics are trying to rewrite history. He said: “A post-modern ideology that says our language, culture, our whole way of life oppresses people. And says authority can never be legitimate and always exploited. This is the ideology of the Left – of the Labour Party.
“It attacks our history and our institutions. It says all cultures must be celebrated, except our own. And it separates people into two groups, usually based on race or religion. So, if one person commits a crime – it’s their fault.
“But if another commits the same crime – it’s society that’s to blame. This is two-tier justice. It’s actually profoundly racist. It’s an attack on the principle that we are all equal before the law.”
The Shadow Justice Secretary said the dogmas are leading to division and chaos. He warned: “The effects of this ideology are all around us. Crime treated like a health problem with criminals helped, not punished.
“Serious and repeat criminals, spared prison by sentencing rules that prioritise their welfare over victims.
“Killers seen as vulnerable because of their mental health. All disparities of outcome viewed as racist and treated more urgently than public safety or justice itself.
“We’ve lost sight of the ideas and institutions that were made in Britain, and we gave as a gift to the world that means we all as equal citizens enjoy law and justice.”
Prison works
Mr Timothy insisted that prison works, as he confirmed plans to create 50,000 more spaces to lock up offenders. He said: “Progressives dismiss prison as costly, pointless, counter-productive.
“Even those who defend it often say the main purpose of prison is to rehabilitate criminals. I completely disagree. Of course, we should, where we can, make sure prisoners are literate, numerate, and employable.
“Of course, when they’re released, they should have a home to go to and, where possible, a place to work. But prison is there to punish, to do justice, and stop criminals committing crime.”
