Calderdale leader hits out over threatening tone surrounding Government's rule of six

Home Secretary Priti Patel said on Tuesday that she wouldn’t hesitate to ‘shop her neighbours’ and Policing Minister Kit Malthouse also urged people to report breaches to police.

From Monday this week any social gathering of more than six people in England is against the law with offenders facing fines of up to £3,200. The law applies both indoors and outdoors.

The new legislation - dubbed the Rule of Six - is further complicated in Halifax as the town remains under local lockdown restrictions which mean people can’t meet other households.

Coun Swift, leader of Calderdale Council, said a calm and measured approach was needed and talk of “shopping a neighbour” wasn’t helpful.

“I would say I am very uncomfortable about the language being used at the moment,” he said.

“We are all struggling and we should be working together in the spirit of doing what is right. It should be that we are all in this together.

“We need less of the language of the police state, which I do find quite worrying.

“Of course the police should be prosecuting and fining people who organise an illegal rave with 40 or 50 people but should they really be pursuing Mrs Jones who sneaks her grandchildren in through the back door?”

Coun Swift said the council would again be pushing the Government to lift local restrictions which caused confusion when the Rule of Six was imposed on top.

He said local people were “frankly bemused” at what they could and couldn’t do and called for greater clarity and less chopping and changing of the rules.

Halifax MP Holly Lynch, however, believes local restrictions will remain in place for a few weeks yet.

She told the Courier there were new “pockets of infection right across the borough in areas where we’ve not seen hotspots before.”

Ms Lynch described the local restrictions and the Rule of Six as “blunt instruments” but added: “Given that we have sadly seen both local and national infections significantly increase in the last few days, I recognise that these may be tools which the Health Secretary wishes to remain in place until the infections start to come back down.

“I know people are feeling a sense of fatigue with the situation and there is nothing harder than not being able to see loved ones, but please adhere to the public health guidelines which will keep us safe.”

Ms Lynch also urged people to stand together and added: “We don’t need any more divisive rhetoric pitting people and communities against each other from the Government.

“Please take the guidelines seriously and there will be no need to report neighbours if everyone works together."

Calder Valley Tory MP Craig Whittaker said he believed the Government messages were clear but what people found frustrating was keeping restrictions in wards where there were zero cases.

Mr Whittaker said there were two wards in Halifax - Park and Warley - with high numbers of cases. He called for the other wards to be removed from local restrictions with all the support mechanisms concentrated there rather than spread across the whole Halifax constituency.

Mr Whittaker said local people had been prepared to report those meeting in contravention of the rules long before the Rule of Six.

He said he had received “several dozen e-mails each week” from constituents in the Calder Valley complaining of people holding parties or BBQs or about large gatherings of youths.

“People fear for their own safety and everybody else’s,” he said. “This is a disease that is going to kill people and the large majority are taking this incredibly seriously.”

Calderdale was placed under local lockdown restrictions on July 30. The restrictions were lifted on September 2 everywhere but Halifax.

The West Yorkshire Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, has warned that police officers were already under pressure.

Federation chairman Brian Booth said enforcing the Rule of Six shouldn’t be solely down to the police.

He added: “We have to be realistic and the whole country has to pull together and play their part.

“If (the Rule of Six) is our priority which other priorities are no longer a priority - road traffic collisions, assaults in progress or burglaries in progress?”