On this morning's today progamme the Home Secretary announced that 300 additional officers will be deployed as part of an anti terrorism initiative to prevent radicalisation.
Foul!!! cry the Tories who say that she has broken electoral rules.Eric Pickles speaking on Radio 4's One O' clock news say this is politically motivated and centred on areas where the Labour party is in trouble.
But is a national anouncement like this a local issue?Again Pickles says yes because police policy is a local issue.He accuses the Labour party of using precious resources to help their local campaign.
The guidence says
"Particular care should be taken over official support, and the use of
public resources, including publicity, for ministerial announcements which could
have a bearing on matters relevant to the local elections.
"In some cases it
may be better to defer an announcement until after the elections, but this would
need to be balanced carefully against any implication that deferral could itself
influence the political outcome."
Could a terrorism announcement be construed as this and could be delayed until after the 1st of May?
No comments:
Post a Comment