Home Office minister in car crash interview after fudging her numbers

Rachel Maclean said she needed ‘another coffee’ after fudging her numbers on the radio (Picture: PA/UK Parliament)

A Home Office minister had a morning she will want to forget after fudging her numbers in a car crash interview about stop and search powers.

Appearing on LBC, Rachel Maclean was forced to admit she didn’t know the crucial changes her own department is introducing.

Ms Maclean was doing the media rounds after her boss Priti Patel lifted restrictions on Section 60, which give officers the controversial right to search people without reasonable grounds when they expect serious violence.

The Home Secretary’s changes have extended the length of time the powers can be in force from 15 to 24 hours, and it’s believed black and minority ethnic communities will be disproportionately affected.

When asked how long a Section 60 order can be put in place for, Ms Maclean wrongly said: ‘I think the time is 12 hours, but it has to be renewed on a proportionate basis when the intelligence is reviewed.’

After being corrected by the presenter, she replied: ‘Oh, forgive me, 24 hours. I need another coffee.’

When pressed further, the minister responded: ‘I think it is… No, I’m being quite upfront with you, I haven’t got the paper in front of me, forgive me.’

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Priti Patel has lifted restrictions on police stop and search powers (Picture: AFP)

She was then awkwardly asked if she thought she should know such information, but Ms Maclean said: ‘I do know. But you’re doing a very good job of demonstrating that I don’t have the papers in front of me now.’

This was her second blunder of the day after she attracted criticism for suggesting people should ‘work more hours’ to combat the living cost crisis.

Section 60 powers also give police the right to search people for weapons before they are used, or if they suspect they’ve been used recently.

Under the now-permanent changes, the order can also be stretched to 48 hours, having previously been limited to 39.

The rank of officers who can authorise the deployment of stop and search has now been lowered from senior officer to inspector.

Police now only need to anticipate serious violence ‘may’ occur rather than ‘will’ occur, and no longer need to alert communities in advance.

The changes are part of the government’s strategy to tackle violent crime.

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Ms Patel said she stands ‘wholeheartedly’ behind the police, adding: ‘The devastating impact of knife crime on families who have lost their loved one is unbearable.

‘No one should have to endure the pain and suffering of the victims of these appalling crimes and we have a responsibility to them to do everything in our power to prevent future tragedies.’

She said the use of stop and search has increased by around 85% since 2019 and has contributed to some 50,000 weapons being taken off the streets.

This comes just weeks after Metro.co.uk reported five police officers could face sack over the ‘racist’ stop and search of Team GB athlete Bianca Williams.

It coincides with the launch of Operation Sceptre, described as a week of ‘intensive action’ by police forces in England and Wales to tackle knife crime.

A recent report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog urged an overhaul of stop and search to tackle the disproportionate impact the measures are having on ethnic minority groups.

Black people were seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people in the year to March 2021, while Asian people were two-and-a-half times more likely.

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