The comments provoked backlash, including from former Merseyside police chief constable Serena Kennedy.
Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin has once again courted controversy with inflammatory remarks, this time questioning the capability of female police officers.
In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live in July, the Runcorn and Helsby MP said:
“I never feel comfortable, actually, seeing two female police officers together.
“I’d much rather see a great, big, strapping male police officer with a female.”
Although she added there was “100% a place for women police officers,” she implied their presence was best reserved for “more sensitive situations, situations where children are involved, situations where battered wives are involved or battered girlfriends.”
Her comments provoked backlash, including from former Merseyside police chief constable Serena Kennedy, who spoke out just days before retiring on August 30, after more than 30 years in policing.
“Furious, angry,” she told Channel 4 News.
“I can’t believe that so long after, 50 years since we had the Gender Equality Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, that somebody is making comments about that role.
“As a mum to two daughters and a nana to a granddaughter, I want them to never feel that they can’t do whatever they want to do just because of their gender.
“They absolutely could.”
She said the force has more work to do to reach a 50:50 split in terms of male and female police officers.
“We’re not where we need to be and comments like that do not help.”
The controversy came on the heels of other inflammatory claims by Pochin. Earlier that month, during an interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, she claimed migrants commit more sexual offences than white British men and that white British women are the target of these crimes.
When challenged by Ferrari, who said: “How do you know they’re all white British women?” Pochin admitted: “Well, we don’t.”
Ferrari responded: “You just said they were.”
Pochin then backtracked: “Well, that’s what I believe to be the case.”
Just days before that exchange, Pochin drew criticism from her constituents for blaming ‘illegal immigrants’ for violence and anti-social behaviour in Runcorn. In a video posted to social media, she claimed houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) were being used to house immigrants responsible for rubbish-strewn streets, violence, and even “potential domestic abuse.”
Local residents and Cheshire Police refuted her claims, stating there was no evidence to support them.
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