Boris Johnson’s plans to ramp up stop and search are ‘racist’, Liberal Democrats say Exclusive: Tory ministers are accused of failing to recognise their policies are discriminatory

Boris Johnson‘s plans to expand the use of stop and search in order to tackle knife crime are “racist”, the Liberal Democrats have said.

The party has called for police to lose the right to search people on the street unless they have good cause to believe they might be involved in crime.

In an interview with i, Lib Dem justice spokesperson Christine Jardine claimed the current regime – and the Conservative manifesto pledge to deploy stop and search more – are disproportionately affecting non-white Brits.

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“You are 47 times more likely to be stopped and searched if you’re black or BAME than if you’re white,” she said. “Now that surely tells you that there’s something wrong with it there and then because that’s an outrageous figure.

‘Grandstanding’

“Stop and search itself is fine, but suspicion-less – no. You’re criminalising young people who are unlikely to have done something wrong.”

Hitting out at the Tory politicians who want to step up the use of stop and search, Ms Jardine said: “There’s a lot of grandstanding going on. Are they racist? As individuals I wouldn’t say so, but the policy is. They’re not recognising the racist element of it, and they should. If they’ve looked at the figures, they must have seen the huge disparity – and why haven’t they acted on that?”

If they got into power, the Liberal Democrats would repeal Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which allows police officers to search people if they fear “serious violence”, even if they have no reason to believe that the specific individual is involved.

Ms Jardine called for better education and mental health treatment to prevent vulnerable young people falling into a life of crime and pledged to adopt the approach used to tackle violence in Glasgow, where the police created a “violence reduction unit” – since copied by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

In August, Home Secretary Priti Patel extended a pilot scheme to make it easier for the police to use Section 60 powers, a move welcomed by senior officers and many crime victims. The Tory manifesto says: “The Conservatives will always back the brave men and women of our police and security services, which is why we will empower the police, backing the increased use of stop and search as long as it is fair and proportionate.”

The Prime Minister has long been a supporter of stop and search, and repeatedly clashed with Theresa May over the issue in the past.