Conservative Europhobia could hit Northumbria police’s ability to do their job

In this increasingly smaller world, where international criminals can use a variety of electronic technologies to evade and stay one step ahead of the law, European cooperation on issues of law and order is vital if the continent’s worst criminals are to be brought to justice.

We saw the benefits of close cooperation with our European partners just last year, with one drugs gang ringleader, Edward Morton, being jailed for 24 years thanks to Dutch and English police authorities working together and pooling their resources. This helped to prevent millions of pounds worth of hard drugs ending up on the streets of the North East.

Unfortunately, 102 Conservative MPs recently signed a letter opposing European legislation which enables UK police to cooperate with their European colleagues. The one Conservative MP in the Northumbria force area, Guy Opperman, is now a member of the government as the aide to immigration minister Damian Green.

My question to Mr Opperman, and to Conservative PCC candidate Phil Butler, is as follows: Will you stand up to the Europhobes in your own party who would seek to seriously damage our country’s ability to bring dangerous criminals like Edward Morton to justice? Or will you allow narrow-minded dogma to hit the ability of forces like Northumbria to do their jobs effectively?