Crime victims will be assigned a designated named police officer they can call under Boris Johnson’s new ‘beating crime plan’

• Prime Minister will shift the focus on to tackling crime after Covid-19 isolation 
• Boris Johnson is expected to unveil his new ‘beating crime plan’ on Tuesday 
• He has vowed to ensure that every victim of crime has ‘a named officer to call’  

Boris Johnson will seek to shift the focus on to tackling crime when he re-emerges from isolation to counter criticism over the ‘pingdemic’ and police anger at Home Secretary Priti Patel.

The Prime Minister is expected to unveil his new ‘beating crime plan’ on Tuesday after leaving quarantine at his Chequers country retreat following a coronavirus contact.

As he began his third year in No 10, Mr Johnson vowed to ensure that every victim of crime has ‘a named officer to call – someone who is immediately on your side’.

His Government has faced anger over the Covid-19 rules causing staff shortages as infections soar during his time in isolation over a contact with Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

The Prime Minister is expected to unveil his new ‘beating crime plan’ on Tuesday after leaving quarantine at his Chequers country retreat following a coronavirus contact. He vowed to ensure that every victim of crime has ‘a named officer to call – someone who is immediately on your side’

And Ms Patel received an extraordinary rebuke from the Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents rank-and-file officers.

The body said it no longer has confidence in the Home Secretary after describing a bitterly opposed pay freeze as ‘the final straw’. 

Mr Johnson, writing in the Sunday Express, said: ‘We need now to redouble our efforts, to continue to put more police out on the street, and to back them all the way.’

He also vowed to introduce reforms, writing that ‘we want everyone to know that if you are the victim of crime you have a named officer to call – someone who is immediately on your side’. 

Other measures he outlined included publishing league tables for 101 and 999 call answering times, putting more police into dealing with ‘the tiny minority of truant kids’, and intensifying efforts against county lines drug gangs.

On Thursday the Police Federation’s national chairman, John Apter, said his members are ‘so angry with this Government’.

Home Secretary Priti Patel received an extraordinary rebuke from the Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents rank-and-file officers. The body said it no longer has confidence in the Home Secretary after describing a bitterly opposed pay freeze as ‘the final straw’.

‘At the beginning of this pandemic they endured PPE shortages and were not even prioritised for the vaccination,’ he added.

‘They continue to be politicised and this pay announcement is the final straw.

‘As the organisation that represents more than 130,000 police officers I can say quite categorically: we have no confidence in the current Home Secretary. I cannot look my colleagues in the eye and do nothing.’

Meanwhile, Mr Javid said on Saturday that he has made a ‘full recovery’ and that his ‘symptoms were very mild, thanks to amazing vaccines’ as he urged the public to get their jabs.

He received a positive test result on July 17 for a coronavirus infection that ultimately sent the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak into isolation as contacts.

The pair initially tried to avoid isolation by saying they were taking part in a testing pilot, but backed down in the face of widespread public criticism.

Both of their quarantine periods are expected to finish at the end of Monday.

On Thursday the Police Federation’s national chairman, John Apter, said his members are ‘so angry with this Government’, adding: ‘We have no confidence in the current Home Secretary’ (file photo)

Pingdemic has put nearly one in FIVE Met Police officers off duty –  as crisis causes  chaos at border checkpoints, on public transport and for food delivery 

By Lauren Lewis for MailOnline 

Nearly one in five Metropolitan Police officers are currently absent from duty after being forced to self isolate amid pingdemic chaos. 

Around 17 per cent of the forces’ officers are currently self isolating, the highest since the start of the pandemic. 

Police were made exempt from self isolation on Thursday, but only if their employers specified their names and they were double-jabbed against Covid-19.

Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation Ken Marsh said the force was ‘massively struggling’. 

‘We are not performing the role properly. We were not offered the jab and now we have got almost one in five officers off sick or self-isolating. 

‘It is coming home to roost and the Government is going to come unstuck,’ he told the Telegraph. 

Nearly one in five Metropolitan Police officers are currently absent from duty after being forced to self isolate amid pingdemic chaos

Police were made exempt from self isolation amid pingdemic chaos on Thursday, but only if their employers specified their names and they were double-jabbed against Covid-19 

The government on Thursday published a list of exemptions for key workers in energy, waste, water, and food supply and production. 

Police, border officers, train and lorry drivers were added to the list on Friday night. 

Workers who avoid self isolation after contact with someone who has Covid will instead be tested daily, allowing them to keep working provided the tests remain negative.  

The Government on Saturday said in a statement that an expected initial extra 200 testing sites would be opened so that daily contact testing could be ‘rolled out to further critical workplaces in England’. 

But currently around 2.3million people from critical areas and jobs have been forced into isolation due to being pinged. 

It is understood Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planning to open more testing sites so more industries can be added to the exemption list in the coming weeks.  

He previously said people who have been double vaccinated would be exempt from self isolation after August 16, provided they have a test. 

More than a million people have been told to self-isolate by the NHS Covid app in recent weeks, with 618,903 alerts sent in the week ending July 14. 

The toll is a 17 per cent increase on the previous seven and another record high.

The guidance lists 16 sectors: energy, civil nuclear, digital infrastructure, food production and supply, waste, water, veterinary medicines, essential chemicals, essential transport, medicines, medical devices, clinical consumable supplies, emergency services, border control, essential defence and local government

Empty shelves in Asda as Britain was caught in a perfect storm of staff shortages and a lack of lorry drivers

Empty shelves and signs on the soft drinks aisle of a Sainsbury’s store in Blackheath, Rowley Regis. Bosses asked customers to ‘bear with us’ blaming ‘high demand’

Police anger over pay freeze could see officers enforce a ‘go-slow’ on 999 calls or ditch their guns on VIP duty, their federation warns 

By Jake Ryan for the Mail on Sunday

Police anger over a pay freeze could see officers enforce a ‘go-slow’ on 999 calls or ditch their guns on VIP duty, their federation leaders have warned.

The Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents 130,000 rank-and-file officers, declared last week that it had no confidence in the Home Secretary Priti Patel after she refused to fund an annual pay rise.

Banned from strike action by law, officers are incensed that other public servants such as firefighters and NHS staff have been awarded rises. 

They are now considering work-to-rule measures such as an overtime ban, armed officers handing back firearms to return to regular policing or patrols driving within speed limits to answer emergency calls.

Ken Marsh, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If you want to keep abusing people, you’re going to come unstuck in the end and we’ve got to that point now.

‘You tell me why the fire brigade deserve a 1.5 per cent pay rise and the police don’t deserve anything?’ 

The app has caused widespread chaos, but it was claimed on Saturday the system causing the problem could not be stopped – because there is not enough testing capacity to allow the ‘test and release’ method to take over. 

There has been mounting pressure for weeks on the government to tweak the sensitivity of the app or make exemptions for key workers and fully vaccinated Britons following warnings that it could lead to food shortages and major disruptions as the epidemic grows.  

UK supermarkets are in the midst of a perfect storm of staff and stock problems with tens of thousands of workers self-isolating because of the ‘pingdemic’. 

The struggle to stack shelves and staff stores and warehouses is being made worse by a lack of lorry drivers to deliver food.

The Road Haulage Association believes the country is 100,000 HGV drivers short – and thousands of prospective drivers are waiting for their HGV tests due to a backlog caused by lockdown, while many existing ones have returned to the EU from the UK after Brexit.

It came as businesses, including one of Britain’s largest food distribution firms, Bidfood, began taking the crisis into their own hands and began advising workers who are pinged by the NHS app to take tests and continue working rather than stay at home for up to ten days as the Government suggests. 

Meanwhile Transport for London has been forced to close both the Circle and Hammersmith and City Tube lines for the entire weekend after 300 staff were ‘pinged’ by the NHS Covid tracking app. 

There will also be changes to the District and Metropolitan lines and short cancellations elsewhere as the so-called ‘pingdemic’ continues to bring transport networks to their knees. 

Reduced timetables will also hit railways across England in a bid to improve reliability following a spate of last-minute cancellations.  

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