𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

It is a “slur” on police officers working to keep the public safe to suggest that two-tier policing is taking place, a minister has said.

But Lucy Rigby, chief secretary to the treasury, said it is the “right thing to do” to look again at police equality guidance.

She told Sky News: “Really, fundamentally, I think that is a slur on the thousands of police officers that go out to work every day, putting themselves in harm’s way to serve the public, to try and prevent crime, and to keep us all safe.

“So, I think that the suggestion, in light of that, that we have two-tier policing, which suggests at its heart that the police are on a sort of systemic basis pushing the interests of one group above another.

“I genuinely think is a slur on all those police officers that are serving this country day and night, seven days a week.”

Asked if it is possible the NPCC guidance to police has created an unequal system, she said: “I think it’s the right thing to do that that guidance is looked at, because the fundamental principle, as you know, that we have in this country is equality before the law.”