Reform wants to bring back ‘big strapping’ bobbies on the beat whom the public would fear.
Party leader Nigel Farage said people out looking for trouble would think twice about committing a crime if they saw policemen they were scared of.
And his first female MP, Sarah Pochin, said women police officers on patrol together looked vulnerable.
The biggest pledge of Mr Farage’s plan to restore law and order to Britain is to recruit 30,000 more police over five years, at a cost of £10.5 billion.
It would take the workforce from 147,000 in England and Wales, plus another 7,000 police community support officers who cannot make arrests, to almost 185,000. Latest figures show that women account for one in three officers nationwide.
Mr Farage said: ‘We will scrap all diversity, equality and inclusion roles, and we will aim for a higher and physically tougher standard of police officer on our streets.
‘I think if British criminals slightly fear the police, that is a desirable place for us to be as a society.’
He told how an Army officer he knew who had served in Afghanistan had applied to join the police on his return but was told to ‘come back next year because they were having trouble with their quotas’.
Reform leader Nigel Farage and MP Sarah Pochin have called for tougher police officers on the beat
Nigel Farage said people out looking for trouble would think twice about committing a crime if they saw policemen they were scared of
Reform’s first female MP Sarah Pochin said female police officers on patrol together looked vulnerable
‘Enough of all that rubbish. And in fact, on that theme, we would look very much to go to people who have served in the Armed Forces who we think would make ideal police officers,’ Mr Farage said.
Asked if scrapping diversity roles would damage trust in policing, he said: ‘No, I think we should fear police, just like as kids we would just be slightly respectful and maybe a touch fearful of school teachers when we were 11 years old or whatever.’
He said ‘society needs’ that ‘tiny little bit of fear’ and that ‘for people out looking for trouble, and if they see, you know, a couple of big strapping police officers, they’ll think, “you know what, this might not be such a good idea”. We need much, much tougher policing.’
Asked if some current officers should not be in their posts, he said: ‘We’re not going to sack police officers, we’re going to hire police officers. We just think that a better physical standard is needed.’
Ms Pochin, a former magistrate, told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘I would feel much safer with the two great big strapping police officers walking down my street. I never like to see actually two female police officers out together. I think they look vulnerable.’
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