Shailesh Vara MP is Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons.
David Cameron is right again to have raised the issue of householders’ rights to defend themselves when confronted by intruders. It is a debate that has been going on for many years. In 2007 I tried to introduce a Private Member’s Bill, with cross-party support, to clarify the law and provide greater protection for decent and ordinary citizens against intruders.
The Government did not allow the Bill to progress. The Government also blocked similar Bills in previous years from my Parliamentary colleagues Roger Gale, Patrick Mercer and Ann McIntosh. And the Government hasn’t changed its mind since.
This is unfinished business and it will take a Conservative government to deliver on it.
The present test of a householder using “reasonable” force is difficult to define and not easy to enforce. That is why a higher test is required, one of being allowed to use force as long as it is not “grossly disproportionate”. Such a change in the law will not only benefit the general public but also the police and the Crown Prosecution Service, as it will provide them with much clearer guidelines with which to operate. The only people the law will not benefit are the criminals who break it in the first place.
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