Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Prime minister's questions

Crispin used the occasion of the first Prime Ministers Questions of 2003 to challege the Prime Minister over the Lord Chancellor's widely publicised views on Crime which were clearly at odds with the Government's wider position.

Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate): The Prime Minister's Lord Chancellor said that the public would understand why burglars convicted for a second time should not necessarily go to prison. As the Lord Chancellor was once the Prime Minister's pupil master and head of chambers, surely the right hon. Gentleman should now take the lead in that arrangement and dismiss the Lord Chancellor, because he is evidently out of touch with the electorate and the wider public.

The Prime Minister: I have already addressed this point, but I point out again that there are now more first-time offenders going to prison than there were a few years ago.