Osborne 'Not Distracted' By Claims Over Private Life

No 10 has said Chancellor George Osborne is "100% focused" on the economy amid allegations about his private life before he became an MP.









The claims, dating back nearly 20 years, were made in Australia by ex-escort agency boss Natalie Rowe, who had a child with a friend of the MP.

Ms Rowe also claimed her phone may have been hacked by the News of the World.

A spokesman for Mr Osborne has said there is "nothing new" in her claims, which have been repeatedly denied.

The News of the World published a photo of Mr Osborne and Ms Rowe on its front page in 2005, when the Conservatives were in opposition and Mr Osborne was running David Cameron's Conservative leadership campaign.

At the time, Mr Osborne said he had met Ms Rowe when he was 22 and she was the partner of a close friend of his who developed a serious drug problem.

But he strenuously denied any improper conduct himself.

In an interview with Australian broadcaster ABC, Ms Rowe repeated allegations first made in 2005 and also claimed police had told her that her name was on a list of phone numbers seized from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, jailed for illegally intercepting voicemail messages in 2007.

The Metropolitan Police have not said whether her name had featured in their investigation into phone hacking allegations.

Asked about the allegations, a No 10 spokesman said it was "very clear to me that the chancellor is 100% focused on the UK economy".

A spokesman for Mr Osborne commented: "These are old allegations that were widely reported and denied years ago. There is nothing new in them."

Profile: Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the newly-appointed Metropolitan Police Commissioner, fits the bill for the "single-minded crime fighter" sought by the home secretary.



Theresa May had made the call after his predecessor Sir Paul Stephenson, and his assistant John Yates, quit amid criticism of the Met's role in the phone-hacking scandal.

And the former Merseyside Police chief was well-placed to take on the job of the UK's top police officer, having been called on to act as the Met's deputy commissioner in the wake of the resignations.

During five years on Merseyside to 2009, Mr Hogan-Howe developed a high profile via regular web chats and broadcasts, appearances on local radio phone-ins and horseback rides through the city centre.

And he earned admirers for his tough approach to anti-social behaviour and stance on gun crime in the wake of the fatal shooting of 11-year-old Rhys Jones.

Born in Sheffield, the football enthusiast's rise through the ranks began with South Yorkshire Police in 1979.

'Tough stance'

He worked as a traffic officer, detective and district commander, gaining an MA in law from Oxford University and a diploma in applied criminology from Cambridge University along the way.

In 1997 he moved to Merseyside police and four years later joined the Met as an assistant commissioner, before returning to Liverpool in 2004.

During that time, crime dropped by a third, and the force claims anti-social behaviour rates were cut in half through a zero-tolerance approach.

Bernard Hogan-Howe's career

1979: South Yorkshire Police

1997: Assistant Chief Constable, Merseyside

2001: Assistant Commissioner, Metropolitan Police

2004: Chief Constable of Merseyside

2009: HM Inspectorate of Constabulary

He hit the headlines in 2006 for sprinting after a suspected drink-driver after spotting him from his chauffeur-driven car.

Mr Hogan-Howe was the man in charge in 2007, when 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead as he walked home from football practice.

The killing horrified the nation and there were grumblings from some in the media when there was no immediate arrest.

But Mr Hogan-Howe got his man in December 2008 when Sean Mercer, 18, was jailed for life and several members of his gang were also locked up.

'Clear philosophy'

That year, he accused some judges of being lenient on gun crime by overlooking mandatory five-year sentences for possession of a firearm.

He also called for those shielding gun criminals from police to be evicted from homes.

Mr Hogan-Howe set up the specialist Matrix team to tackle gun crime - the first of its kind outside London.









The home secretary and London mayor were "of one mind" in appointing Mr Hogan-Howe.

The unit's former head, Det Supt Geoff Sloane, said: "When he came he had a clear philosophy. It was to tackle organised crime, gang-related crime but also to make sure victims were properly supported, which was backed up by strong neighbourhood policing."

Before leaving Merseyside, he applied to succeed Sir Hugh Orde as chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

However, he withdrew from the application process to take up a role with Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies.

He was called back to the Met in July to support Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin - later a rival for the top job - in bringing stability to the force after Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation.

The home secretary and London Mayor Boris Johnson said they were "of one mind" in their decision to appoint Mr Hogan-Howe.

Mrs May cited his "excellent track-record" in reducing crime had proven the deciding factor.

May To Hold Summit On Gang Culture

Theresa May, home secretary, is to host an international summit on how the country should deal with gangs, as part of the government’s response to last month’s riots.












Ms May, who appeared in front of MPs at the home affairs select committee on Thursday, conceded that only about a quarter of those involved in the violence in August are now thought to have had gang affiliations – fewer than thought. However, she said it was still vital to bring the problem under control.

“We are looking as widely as possible at what has worked [elsewhere] to make sure that what has worked is put in process,” Ms May said.

The home secretary reiterated that the government will also be canvassing the views of organisers of successful gang projects in the UK, such as the Strathclyde police scheme in Glasgow and another council-funded initiative in Waltham Forest, north London.

The prime minister has already announced that Bill Bratton, former chief of both New York and Los Angeles police departments, will be flying to the UK to give advice at the event in October.

However David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham – the borough in which the rioting started after the fatal police shooting of local resident Mark Duggan – suggested the focus should be on reassuring communities that the police would be able to restrain criminals more effectively in the future.

“We must never, ever allow criminals and gang members to run the streets,” he told the committee in an impassioned outburst. “The advances in community policing were important, but it needed to go further.”

Mr Lammy said he had concerns about Operation Trident, the Metropolitan Police’s campaign to reduce gun crime in the black community, which organised the operation when Mr Duggan was shot.

“When police come in from outside the borough, things can go wrong,” Mr Lammy said.

The MP added that he had seen evidence that riot perpetrators had been inciting violence on BlackBerry Messenger days before the disorder in Tottenham began. “I am deeply worried that the police seemed unaware of these networks,” Mr Lammy told the committee.

Separately, in a speech at the children’s charity Barnardo’s, Sadiq Khan, shadow justice secretary, castigated Ken Clarke, justice secretary, for making “simplistic assertions” when he called rioters a “feral underclass”.

“This kind of language absolves people from responsibility for their actions, implying that somehow they had no self-control or no choice,” Mr Khan said.

“Instead we will be looking at how we can make young people responsible citizens who understand the consequences of their actions and have the opportunities and the means to stay away from crime.”

UK Riots: Acting Met Chief Rejects 'Feral Underclass' Analysis

Tim Godwin challenges Kenneth Clarke's description of people involved in last month's riots.












Tim Godwin has challenged the justice secretary’s description of those blamed for England’s riots as a 'feral underclass'.

Britain's most senior police officer has challenged the justice secretary's description of those blamed for England's riots as a "feral underclass".

Tim Godwin, the acting commissioner for the Metropolitan police, said he would not have used Kenneth Clarke's term as he outlined his vision for the future of policing in the wake of the violence to the London assembly.

Writing in the Guardian on Monday, Clarke said the civil unrest over the summer had revealed an urgent need for penal reform to stop reoffending among "a feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream in everything but its materialism".

His comments came as figures revealed that almost 75% of those aged over 18 who were charged with offences committed during the riots had previous convictions.

Godwin – one of four candidates aspiring to be the Met's next commissioner – queried Clarke's choice of description when asked by Brian Coleman, a Conservative member of the London assembly, what he wanted politicians to do as a result of the riots.

He said: "The one thing that has struck me about the comments made by the justice secretary recently in the Guardian article was that he used a term – that I particularly would not use myself – about 'feral underclass'.

"The use of the term 'feral' in terms of youth and inner-city was first used, as I recall, in my service here in about 2000 following the death of Damilola Taylor.

"I think the fact that term is still being used in terms of young people in our inner city … is a great challenge to us as a city."

He added: "It's a term I would not personally use, but I think we do need to understand the level of fear of crime that actually encourages them to join gangs."

Godwin said the revelation that the vast majority of people involved in the summer riots had previous convictions had been a "wake-up call" for the criminal justice system.

He added that there has "got to be a big debate in London in terms of how we empower local communities" and called for "a wholesale change" in the way people first entering the criminal justice system are dealt with.

This should include developing a "cohesive plan", such as increasing local justice, which would see people coming forward from communities to sit as local JPs.

Godwin said: "Robust enforcement is key, but at the same time we need people to volunteer and come forward and work to make those communities better and to reduce the fear of crime – specifically among young people in inner cities."

He also told the assembly that police had not anticipated the scale of trouble that hit the capital across 22 boroughs last month, but said his force would do everything in its power to avoid a repeat of the disorder.

"In terms of the future, we will make sure that we over-egg the pudding in terms of numbers," he added.

Godwin told City Hall on Wednesday that morale at the Met was as strong as it ever had been. He also said next year's operation at the Olympics "will be better as a result of the experience we have had".

His comments came a day after he gave evidence to the home affairs select committee on the riots.

The panel of MPs heard that the rioting will cost the taxpayer more than £133m in policing and compensation for businesses hit by the violence.

Metropolitan Police To Use Sick Leave Officers For Office Roles

Britain’s biggest police force plans to fill back-office roles with injured officers to boost the number of officers available for frontline duty in the wake of the riots, it was revealed today.












Boris Johnson arrives at the Home Affairs Select Committee to answer questions about the recent riots in London.

The plan, announced by London Mayor Boris Johnson, comes after the Metropolitan Police was severely criticised for not having enough officers on the streets to cope with the disorder sweeping London last month.

Outnumbered by rioters, the police was forced to allow looters to steal from shops in what became one of the largest scenes of social disobedience ever witnessed in Britain.

Giving evidence to MPs about the riots in London, the acting Scotland Yard commissioner Tim Godwin admitted: “We ran out of police officers” and added: "The thin blue line is quite thin on occassions."

Mr Johnson told the home affairs select committee that he had drawn up plans to try an increase the number of frontline officers available to the Metropolitan Police.

“One of the things we are doing is looking at getting officers who are on long term sick leave to come in and do some of these functions that are currently being done by warranted officers in order to allow the warranted officers out there on the street,” he said.

“Out of these events good must come.”

The riots in London began on Saturday 6 August and continued until the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Police increased the numbers of officers on the streets of the capital from 6,000 to 16,000 on the Tuesday evening to prevent a fourth night of rioting.

Mr Godwin, who is bidding to become the new Metropolitan Police commissioner following Sir Paul Stephenson’s departure, said he wished he had increased the number of officers sooner.

He said: “You would want the benefit of hindsight as foresight. Had I had that then I wish I had lots more police officers on duty on Sunday into Monday.”

It was also announced that of the 1,630 people charged during the riots, 83 per cent have had prior contact with the police while 77 per cent had criminal records.

The justice secretary Kenneth Clarke said that the figures highlighted a “broken penal system”.

Mr Godwin said that the statistics were “a wake up call for the criminal justice system”.

He added: “The amount of people that have previous convictions does pose questions for us and I think that we at the Met, working with the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office, have got to learn from that.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said reoffending rates were "ludicrous" but that none of those involved was "beyond help".He said: “What has so much gone missing inside the criminal justice system is that the reoffending rates in the UK are ludicrous and what we end up doing is arresting and re-arresting and re-re-arresting the same people for different crimes.

"Rehabilitation...is a critical component to changing the communities we are talking about."

Mr Johnson said that the justice system must also plan for the huge numbers of extra prisoners it will receive in the wake of the riots. He added: “You cannot simply abandon them there [in prison].”

Mr Johnson also revealed that the Metropolitan Police would submit a bill for £74million to the Government for the cost of policing the riots.

It was also estimate that the cost on other parts of the country came to £50 million, meaning the total nationwide cost is £124million.

Lynne Owens, the Scotland Yard assistant commissioner in charge of policing the riots, also revealed that the forces still has more than 20,000 hours of CCTV footage to view, suggesting many more arrests, on top of the 2,343 the force has already made, are likely.

Met Police Considering More Riot Training

The Met Police is considering doubling the number of officers trained to deal with riots, its acting head has said.









Mayor Boris Johnson backed decisions by Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin.

Tim Godwin said the number of police given specialist "level 2" public order training could rise to 6,000.

And he admitted the force made mistakes in the aftermath of the police shooting in Tottenham of a man whose death sparked last month's disturbances.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson defended police handling of the riots, saying the "crisis" caught everyone unawares.

Both men appeared before MPs on Tuesday to discuss the riots which spread across London.

Mr Godwin said with hindsight more officers would have been deployed on the streets after the shooting of Mark Duggan by police in Tottenham.

"The number of sites of disorder was something we hadn't experienced in the city before - and that did take us by surprise," he said.

He said with the benefit of hindsight he "wished he had had lots more police officers on duty on the Sunday and then into the Monday."

Mr Godwin defended the force's actions saying that decisions on tactics and numbers were taken on the basis of the best evidence available.

He said he wished he had more officers available by the third day of incidents - but nobody had foreseen "22 boroughs of serious disorder" driven by "copycat" criminality.

Regarding riot training, he said: "Looking ahead at what might come in the future, I think we're going to need to increase it."

He said that 43 of the force's officers had received commendations for their "extreme bravery" and 282 had been injured.

But Mr Godwin also rejected suggestions that his commanders had used the wrong tactics or were lacking specific tools, such as water cannon or baton rounds, also known as rubber bullets.



"We had a full range of tactics," he told MPs. "It was purely numbers [of officers] that was the inhibitor."

"Baton rounds were available but I think we would have been having a different conversation [if they had been used and people had been injured].

"I take pride in the fact that we filled up prison places instead of hospital beds, and I think that's the British way."

Mr Johnson declined to agree with the prime minister that police had got their tactics wrong.

The mayor said lessons could be learned with the benefit of hindsight - but disorder had been contained.

The mayor and the Met's acting chief echoed Justice Secretary Ken Clarke's views that the riots were the legacy of a broken penal system.

Mr Godwin told the committee: "I think this is a wake-up call for the criminal justice system.

"We have in London been seeking to speed up justice, make it more relevant, make it more relevant to communities, and that's something that we need to do.

"The amount of people who have previous convictions does pose questions for us."

UNIFORMED POLICE ON STREETS DURING LONDON RIOTS

* SAT 6 AUG: 3,000
* SUN 7 AUG: 3,000 (then upped to 4,200)
* MON 8 AUG: 6,000
* TUES 9 AUG: 16,000 (total on duty 24,300)
* Source: Met Police

Giving evidence to the Commons Home Affairs committee, Mr Johnson said that the Metropolitan Police and the city's authorities had been completely surprised by the scale of the disorder in August that spread from one incident in Tottenham to other boroughs.

"I think with 20/20 hindsight people may feel that it would have been wiser to upscale the police presence.

"But if you look overall at what the police did on [the first] night and on successive nights and what they are doing now … the riots were contained and there were remarkably few casualties"

During the emergency recall of Parliament last month, Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that there had been far too few police on the streets and they had used the wrong tactics.

Asked by the committee if he agreed with the prime minister, Mr Johnson said: "It's self-evidence that there was a difficulty, a crisis, on the Sunday and Monday that caught everyone unawares."

Mr Johnson compared the scenes in London to those in Paris six years ago. He said that the police had to rely on emergency powers to restore order in the French capital - whereas the British approach had ended the disorder within a week.

The Metropolitan Police has told the committee in a letter that policing the disorder cost £74m and they now have 500 officers working on investigations.

The force also said that its commanders took the decisions to increase the number of officers deployed over the course of the disorder and later informed the home secretary and prime minister. The decision to increase numbers had been taken before police chiefs met ministers in an emergency Whitehall meeting.

Gangs

The MPs were hearing from the Mayor and police chiefs as new figures emerged about people who took part in the rioting and looting.

The Metropolitan Police says that the proportion of rioters with links to gangs has dropped from almost a third to 19%, almost certainly because detectives had arrested known suspects before targeting others filmed on CCTV.

Figures indicate that eight out of 10 offenders were known to the police and 75% of them had a criminal record.

In an article published in the Guardian on Tuesday morning, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke blamed the "broken penal system" for the riots.

He said the Ministry of Justice's latest statistics showed that the hardcore of those involved had previous convictions and the criminal justice system had failed to stop them reoffending.

Another Minister Snapped In No 10 Document Trap

Papers make explicit the delight of government at the impending departure of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.












They should really have learned their lesson by now. Andrew Mitchell yesterday became the latest senior figure to be photographed leaving Downing Street clutching sensitive Government documents in clear view of the waiting photographers.

Following in the footsteps of Caroline Flint, Danny Alexander and Metropolitan Police commander Bob Quick, Mr Mitchell was undone by the oldest trick of the modern digital camera: the ability to capture even the smallest print from yards away.

The International Development Secretary was shown leaving a National Security Council meeting yesterday morning with briefing notes on Afghanistan marked "protected".

The document made explicit the Government's delight at the impending departure of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and described British attitudes to criticism of the country's banking system by the IMF.

Confirming that the Government is pleased Mr Karzai is intending to stand down after two terms in office in 2014, the document reads: "This is very important. It improves Afghanistan's political prospects very significantly. We should welcome Karzai's announcement in public and in private."

The document also details Government concern, highlighted repeatedly by various international organisations in recent months, that foreign aid given to Afghanistan is sent to a finance ministry and banking sector that is notoriously corrupt. Some international funds to Afghanistan have been suspended, but the document suggests that this may destabilise transitional arrangements for handing over more power to the Afghan authorities.

Mr Mitchell's briefing document reads: "The World Bank have told us that the suspension of UK and other donor funds to the Afghan government will soon begin to destabilise activities essential for transition." The document adds that in the autumn the IMF will send a new inspection team to assess whether the situation has improved.

It continues: "We are hopeful that the government will have demonstrated sufficient progress towards credible reforms of the financial sector, and actions to address the Kabul bank fraud so that a new programme can be agreed over the autumn." Mr Mitchell apparently realised he had mistakenly displayed the confidential briefing papers but told an aide: "It is nothing top secret."

The Department for International Development later said the papers were "of a routine nature". A spokesman said: "They would have had a national security level marking of 'restricted' or 'confidential' if they contained anything of significant sensitivity."

Mr Mitchell could at least console himself that he is far from the first to be caught out like this. Former housing minister Ms Flint was snapped in 2008 carrying papers warning of a property crisis which could see house prices fall by 10 per cent, while last November Mr Alexander was pictured with a copy of the Government's spending review document, revealing a potential 490,000 public sector job losses.

The only person to lose their job was Met Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, who was snapped with a briefing of an ongoing counter-terrorism operation. Some raids had to be brought forward as a result and Mr Quick resigned.

Home Office Meets Social Networks Over Blocking Plans

Home secretary Theresa May is meeting Twitter, Research In Motion and Facebook to discuss the feasibility of blocking access to social networks in times of social disorder.

The talks between the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), police forces and the social-networking service providers on Thursday are dedicated to exploring technical measures to block access for individuals inciting violence. They follow the use of social networks by participants in widespread rioting around the UK at the beginning of August.










Home secretary Theresa May is meeting Twitter, RIM and Facebook to discuss social media's role in the recent UK riots.

"These discussions will help us determine how law enforcement and the networks can work better together," the Home Office said in a statement. "Amongst the issues to be discussed is whether and how we should be able to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality."

The Home Office declined to tell ZDNet UK whether it will discuss closing down social networks completely during disorder, but said that social networks are "a means of enabling criminals to communicate".

"We are working with the police to see what action can be taken to prevent access to those services by customers identified as perpetrators of disorder or other criminal action," a spokeswoman for the Home Office added.

Incitement

The BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instant-messaging service was used by people to incite looting, according to The Guardian, and two men have been sentenced to four-year prison terms for using Facebook to encourage people to take part in the looting. In response, prime minister David Cameron told parliament the government is considering closing down social networks such as Twitter and Facebook during unrest.

The blocking of communication over social networks is typically associated with repressive regimes and has occurred during disturbances in Egypt, Bahrain and Libya, among other countries.

Twitter confirmed that its representative will attend the Home Office meeting, while Facebook is sending Richard Allan, its head of policy in Europe. During the disorder, Facebook said that it had "ensured any credible threats of violence [were] removed from Facebook."

RIM did not respond to a request to comment on the discussions, but said earlier in August it "continues to comply with both UK privacy laws as well as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa)".

Civil liberties concerns

Ten civil liberties organisations, including Liberty and the Open Rights Group (ORG), sent a letter to home secretary May on Wednesday, saying that turning off, restricting or monitoring people's communications networks needed open, detailed deliberation.

"We are very concerned that new measures, made in good faith but in a heated political environment, will overextend powers in ways that would be susceptible to abuse, restrict legitimate, free communication and expression and undermine people's privacy," the groups said in the letter. "This is especially so if proposals involve unaccountable voluntary arrangements between law enforcement and communications providers."

The main danger with voluntary arrangements between service providers and the police is a lack of accountability through the courts, believes ORG executive director Jim Killock.

"Innocent people could well find their accounts suspended without legal recourse," Killock told ZDNet UK.

"More worrying is perhaps the effect on people engaged in political activity. Police could make a judgement that someone is breaking the law, while individuals think they are engaged in legitimate protest."

The Metropolitan Police's acting deputy commissioner Tim Godwin told the Home Affairs Committee last week that police had contemplated switching off Twitter but that "the legality of that is very questionable, and additionally it is also a very useful intelligence asset".

In addition, assistant commissioner Lynne Owens told the committee that police had monitored Twitter and BBM in real time. "There was intelligence that the Olympic sites, that both Westfields and Oxford Street were indeed going to be targeted," Owens said. "We were able to secure all those places and indeed there was no damage at any of them."

Phone Hacking: Met Police detective Arrested

Policeman suspected of leaking details of hacking investigation as force also confirms arrest of 35-year-old man.












Phone hacking: the man has not been charged but he has been suspended by the Metropolitan police.

A police detective has been arrested on suspicion of leaking details about Scotland Yard's phone-hacking investigation.

The man has not been charged but he has been suspended by the Metropolitan police.

The Met also on Friday arrested a 35-year-old man, who Sky News named as former News of the World reporter Dan Evans, on suspicion of phone hacking. He has been released on police bail.

Evans was suspended by the paper more than a year ago after being named in a civil case against the now defunct tabloid's publisher, News International subsidiary News Group Newspapers, brought by interior designer Kelly Hoppen.

Sue Akers, the force's deputy assistant commissioner, who is leading the investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World, said: "I made very clear when I took on this investigation the need for operational and information security. It is hugely disappointing that this may not have been adhered to."

Akers added: "The MPS [Met] takes the unauthorised disclosure of information extremely seriously and has acted swiftly in making these arrests."

A spokesperson for Guardian News & Media, which publishes the Guardian, declined to comment on reports that the leaks had been to the Guardian, and said: "We note the arrest of a Scotland Yard detective on suspicion of misconduct in a public office relating to unauthorised disclosure of information.

"On the broader point raised by the arrest, journalists would no doubt be concerned if conversations between off-the-record sources and reporters came routinely to be regarded as criminal activity. In common with all news organisations we have no comment to make on the sources of our journalism."

Police Numbers 'Will Reduce In Line With Risk'

Acting Commissioner of the Met Police Tim Godwin says he is negotiating with London Mayor Boris Johnson over officer numbers.



Speaking alongside the Mayor of London after a Cobra meeting this morning, the Police Commissioner said he would start to reduce numbers of officers on the street "as and when we see the risk go down".

He added that hundreds of thousands of young people did not engage in rioting that affected London and parts of England and warned against demonising all teenagers.