Overview

• Colin Sutton, the former detective chief inspector who led investigations into Levi Bellfield and Delroy Grant, has joined Reform UK to develop its plan to recruit 30,000 extra officers and halve crime within five years.
• He is tasked with designing frontline reforms including equipping all officers with Tasers, reopening 300 mothballed stations, and ensuring every reported offence is investigated.
• Sutton has proposed handling lesser online abuse cases through civil defamation processes rather than criminal prosecutions, reserving criminal sanctions for hate speech and incitement.
• Nigel Farage hailed Sutton’s expertise as a significant asset to bolster the party’s law-and-order platform before voters head to the polls.
• Reform UK plans to fund its £17.4 billion zero-tolerance blueprint by scrapping HS2 and net-zero commitments, a proposal challenged by Labour and Conservative figures for lacking credible costings.