Overview

• Reform UK announced that Leicestershire and Rutland police and crime commissioner Rupert Matthews defected from the Conservatives to join the party.
• Matthews condemned modern crime policy for hampering officers and likened UK justice reforms to those of failed states such as Lebanon and Libya.
• Vanessa Frake-Harris, retired governor of Wormwood Scrubs prison, has joined Reform UK’s law-and-order taskforce citing government neglect of prison security and officer safety.
• Labour and Liberal Democrat spokespeople derided the defection and taskforce expansion, questioning how Reform UK would fund and implement its crime agenda.
• The appointments underscore Reform UK’s bid to bolster its law-and-order credentials as it challenges the two-party dominance under Nigel Farage’s leadership.