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Carrying acid in public without 'good reason' to be banned, Home Secretary Amber Rudd announces | Carrying acid in public without 'good reason' to be banned, Home Secretary Amber Rudd announces |
(35 minutes later) | |
Carrying acid in public will be outlawed without “good reason” and sales to under-18s banned, following a series of horrific attacks. | Carrying acid in public will be outlawed without “good reason” and sales to under-18s banned, following a series of horrific attacks. |
Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced the crackdown, as she also vowed to cut the number of knife attacks by preventing children buying knives online. | Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced the crackdown, as she also vowed to cut the number of knife attacks by preventing children buying knives online. |
“We are going to stop people carrying acid in public if they don’t have a good reason,” she told the Conservative party conference. | “We are going to stop people carrying acid in public if they don’t have a good reason,” she told the Conservative party conference. |
“Acid attacks are absolutely revolting. You have all seen the pictures of victims that never fully recover. Endless surgeries. Lives ruined. | “Acid attacks are absolutely revolting. You have all seen the pictures of victims that never fully recover. Endless surgeries. Lives ruined. |
“So today, I am also announcing a new offence to prevent the sale of acids to under 18s.” | “So today, I am also announcing a new offence to prevent the sale of acids to under 18s.” |
Ms Rudd also vowed to “drastically limit the public sale of sulphuric acid”, because it is used to help produce so-called “mother of Satan” homemade explosives. | |
“This is how we will help make our communities safer as crime changes,” the Home Secretary added. | |
Her conference speech included a raft of other policy announcements, including: | |
* Up to 15 years in prison for people who repeatedly view extremist material online. | |
* New technology to track down indecent images of children online and remove them at an unprecedented rate. | |
* Making it illegal to keep certain types of weapons – such as flick knives and zombie knives – at home. | |
Ms Rudd also told party activists in Manchester that security services had foiled seven terrorist plots this year. | |
And she warned of “an exponential surge in the volume of child sexual abuse referrals”, pledging a £600,000 investment in new software that trawls the web for images of child sexual abuse. | |
The technology would get the images taken down “at an unprecedented rate”, she said, urging internet companies to “start using it as soon as they can”. | |
“Our question to them will be 'if not, why not'. And I will demand very clear answers,” she threatened. | |
Ms Rudd also called on Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft to “honour your moral obligations” and build on their progress in countering terrorism online. | |
“I call on you with urgency, to bring forward technology solutions to rid your platforms of this vile terrorist material that plays such a key role in radicalisation,” she said. | |
The Home Secretary also challenged critics of the counter-terror Prevent programme to work with the Government, saying it was not “some Big Brother monolithic beast”. | |
On immigration curbs, Ms Rudd promised there would be no cliff edge for businesses when a new system is brought in after Brexit. | |
“I'm committed to working with businesses, both large and small, to make sure we don't impose unnecessary burdens, or create damaging labour shortages,” she said. | |
But the pro-EU Open Britain group seized on her failure to repeat Theresa May’s much-ridiculed pledge to cut immigration to the “tens of thousands”. | |
Labour MP Stella Creasy, a supporter of the group, said: “The Government’s policy of cutting net migration to the tens of thousands is in tatters. | |
“When the Home Secretary won’t even mention the target in her keynote conference speech, it’s clear the policy has lost all credibility and Cabinet support.” |