Tory shadow minister Robert Jenrick has suggested the UK’s capital city is too dangerous – after undertaking a vigilante fare-dodging exercise to try to expose crime
Robert Jenrick has suggested London is too dangerous – after undertaking a vigilante fare-dodging exercise.
The Shadow Justice Secretary filmed himself going after people who were not paying their fares on the London Underground. In a video posted on social media, he followed them and asked them why they thought it was okay not to follow the rules. He was criticised over the video and accused of “trying to score points or social media clout”.
Mr Jenrick, who came second to Kemi Badenoch in the Tory leadership race, has been launching a fierce attack on London – and its mayor Sadiq Khan. He has claimed “the vibe” is that the city is too dangerous for people to do many things.
In an interview on Times Radio, host Hugo Rifkind told him: “I’ve been in this city for 25 years. now. I wander round, I love it. It’s a vibrant, joyful place. Do you really think it’s a more scary place than 20 years ago? Crime is down. It used to be very scary 20 years ago.”
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Mr Jenrick replied: “I do. Like you, I think London is an amazing city and I want it to be the best city in the world. But if you talk to people, they are now worried about going out in London. People are not wearing watches, people are worried about their mobile phones being stolen, nightlife is massively down in London because young people don’t fell it’s a safe city they want to live in.
“This is what people say to me. This is I think the vibe you get in London and it is Sadiq Khan who has been presiding over this and he needs to step up and take action.”
It comes after he yesterday said he wants authorities to “step up” and “reassert these basic rules” after he highlighted fare dodging at a London station. The Top Tory said he wants bodies to understand “that these things are not small rule breaks”, and said he was “unapologetic” about sharing the clip.
In the video, in which he confronted people who forced their way through the ticket barriers at Stratford station in the east of the capital, he asked one person “do you think it’s alright not to pay” and challenged another to “go back through the barrier and pay”.
At the top of an escalator he said to one person “do you want to go back and pay like everybody else”?
Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live on Thursday, Mr Jenrick said that staff “weren’t doing anything” to tackle evasion when he was at Stratford to film his video. “They weren’t either trained or didn’t have the self-confidence to take action, and I think that’s the issue sometimes,” he said.
“We need the authorities to actually understand that these things are not small rule breaks. They’re actually things that create a sense of impunity which makes everyone else feel less safe and drags the whole of society down.”
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) said in a statement: “This incident was not only inappropriate but also potentially dangerous for passengers, staff and the individual involved.
“Fare evasion is a serious issue, but it must be tackled with professional, trained enforcement, not MPs trying to score points or social media clout on their daily commute.”
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