Boris Johnson to crack down on crime and demand immigrants speak English in latest campaign pledges
Tory leadership candidate Boris Johnson has suggested that he will introduce tougher sentencing for violent or sexual offenders should he become Prime Minister.
He also said that immigrants coming to the UK must learn English as he made a series of campaign pledges ahead of a busy Saturday for rival Jeremy Hunt and himself.
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The pair will both appear at the Young Conservatives conference in Nottingham and at two more hustings.
Speaking about his views on the justice system, Johnson told the Daily Mail: “I’m afraid there are too many people, because of the way the sentencing law works, who have committed serious violence or sexual offences who are being let out, as the law prescribes, after they’ve served only half the sentence that is pronounced in open court.
“This is happening. And I’m talking about serious sexual or violent offenders. And I think the public is noticing this, quite properly. They don’t think it’s right, and I don’t think it’s right.”
He also criticised current Prime Minister Theresa May for introducing curbs on police’s stop-and-search powers during her time as home secretary in 2014, saying he wanted to “change that balance back”.
They have already been reintroduced on a trial basis in seven areas of high knife crime.
Johnson is expected to further outline his crime policies today.
The former foreign secretary also said immigrants must learn English because “there are too many parts of the country where it is not the first language”, when speaking at a hustings in Darlington on Friday..
He added that he was contemplating “amnesty” for the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants that have been here for more than 15 years.
Johnson has also promised an extra £25m a year in subsidies for farmers in Scotland in order to address how “poorly treated” they have been, giving the same per-hectare farming payment as the UK average post-Brexit.
Meanwhile, the current foreign secretary Hunt has called on Tory members to choose a “serious leadership”, saying he wants to win over the public – and young voters in particular – with “competence, delivery and serious leadership” rather than “populism”.
He is today expected to say: “The country always calls on Conservatives when we face difficult challenges.
“But lasting popularity for our party doesn’t come from populism but from respect. Respect earned through competence, delivery and serious leadership.
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“Without that respect we will put our country in the hands of a hard-left populist who has opposed British values his entire life.
“We are in a time of real and present danger to our country.”