Tony Hogg claims Tories "don't understand role of PCC"

After quitting the Conservatives in disgust, outgoing Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, Tony Hogg, has today claimed that the Conservative Party and its MPs do not understand the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner and that Home Secretary Theresa May’s claims that the only safe PCC was a Conservative one were “absurd”.

Commenting on these claims, Gareth Derrick, Labour’s candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in Devon and Cornwall, said: “The man who has held the role of Police and Crime Commissioner for three and a half years has written today that Conservative MPs have often failed to be supportive, that the Conservative Party itself does not clearly understand the role and that they just expect “another Party lever to be whipped into collective compliance”.

“Having made these extraordinary revelations, it is clear that the Conservatives are completely unwilling to accept any new PCC other than one that is compliant, and that the party is as fractured on this issue as it is on the EU. Devon and Cornwall need a sound and reliable Police Commissioner who will not be pulled apart by their party’s abject failure to tackle crime and policing issues.

“Tony Hogg has finally spelled out in black and white that even the Tories do not trust the Tories on crime.”