Today’s king’s speech will be Rishi Sunak’s first as PM, and King Charles’s first as king
Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, also refused to endorse Suella Braverman’s description of rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice” in his interviews this morning. Asked on Sky News about the comment, Chalk said he would take a “take a different approach”. He went on:
There’s often a very significant context, which will be mental health issues, substance abuse problems, relationship breakdown, loss of a job and so on. And so I do think that that needs to be weighed in the balance.
We shouldn’t do anything which entrenches people’s rough sleeping. Because if you do that, effectively you’re condemning and consigning people to poorer health outcomes and I’m afraid, in some cases, even shorter life expectancy.
I think she was writing on Twitter, and I actually had a chat with her about it. I don’t think she disagrees with anything that I’m saying now, namely that there is a context.
There is no doubt there are elements on these marches that I’m afraid are espousing hate … but equally there will be those people who are there expressing their anguish at some of the untold suffering.
The concern must be whether those people who have perfectly legitimate intentions and concerns are directly or indirectly supporting those people who are espousing hate.
It’s not confusion. I think it’s an issue of semantics. The home secretary is absolutely correct when she says that there is hate on these marches.
Of course, there is the right to protest, which is important, but also concerns about public safety. Now, [the police] have been very clear that having weighed all that up, their strong request is that these marches don’t take place and we support the police in that.
We think that it’s wise advice. We think it takes account of all the competing considerations and that it should be followed.
