Diane Abbott’s attempt to woo the Police Federation ended up with her being jeered as she failed to back officers having controversial protective equipment to save them from being spat at.



Abbott went to the federation’s conference armed with promises that Labour would fund 10,000 more officers if elected and rhetoric attacking years of cuts to police funding by the Conservative government.

That was received with polite applause in Birmingham by delegates representing 120,000 rank and file officers.

But the shadow home secretary came unstuck when tackled on her position on spit hoods, a controversial mesh device used by officers to stop suspects spitting at them.

Nearly half of the 43 forces in England and Wales use them, as does Police Scotland. Britain’s largest force, the Metropolitan police, are trialling their use. Most officers believe they are vital to prevent against infections such as hepatitis C, but some police chiefs have privately expressed concerns that they look more like hoods used at Guantánamo Bay than policing by consent.

Questioned by delegates about the hoods, Abbott ran into difficulty, which only got worse.

She said: “I am aware, if I wasn’t aware [before] , I have got that sense from the audience today, that spit hoods is a complex subject; there’s health and safety, there’s health, there is a whole range of issues.”

Abbott continued: “If the government, or the Metropolitan police, because they are actually probably the first major police force that will allow spit hoods ...”

At that the audience broke out into jeers.

Police at London Bridge station use a spit hood. Photograph: Facebook

Ken Marsh of the Metropolitan Police Federation said that at the Notting Hill carnival last year 16 officers needed hospital treatment because they were spat at. He told Abbott: “I am finding some of the things you are saying amazing.”

Abbott ended by saying: “It is a pleasure to come here, and a pleasure to hear your views on a range of issues.”

Minutes earlier Abbott won laughs from the audience when she joked about her much-ridiculed radio interview in which she bungled answers on how Labour would fund its pledge for 10,000 extra officers. She added: “I would only ask, which is more newsworthy, Diane Abbott fluffs a line in a radio interview or the fact that homicide is rising and continues to rise?”

She said the Conservatives were failing to protect communities and police officers: “They say they are the party of law and order but ... I put it to you would a real party of law and order cut 20,000 police officers and staff?”

Earlier Brandon Lewis, the policing minister, was jeered when he told delegates crime was down despite cuts in officer numbers. He said: “As these police officer numbers have changed we’ve actually seen crime fall by about a third since 2010.”

He said increases in recorded crime were a “good thing” as they showed victims had more confidence to report offences.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, addresses the conference on Wednesday.