Suella Braverman tells woke cops to ditch political correctness as she blasts officers for being soft on eco-loons

WOKE cops were told by the Home Secretary to ditch political correctness and catch crooks.

Suella Braverman said some forces had completely abandoned impartiality.

She warned them to stop dancing with eco-warriors and obsessing over Twitter.

Ms Braverman told the launch of The Public Safety Foundation in Westminster: “Maintaining public confidence requires the police to be seen as politically impartial and unequivocally on the side of the law-abiding majority.

“When officers stood by as a statue was torn down, when the police were pictured handing tea to protesters blocking the road . . .  the reputation of policing is damaged in the eyes of the public.

“Some forces have equality teams that have completely abandoned impartiality in favour of taking partisan positions, sometimes even engaging in political argument on Twitter.

“I believe in the police. But the policing in which I believe isn’t riven with political correctness but enshrined in good old-fashioned common sense.”

She said police should not be getting involved in gender-critical issues and critical race theory — the belief that people in western societies are inherently racist.

Instead they should use stop-and-search powers without fear of being called racist.

Top cops should be unafraid to use bodycam footage to fight back at social media claims of heavy-handedness, she said.

There are now more police in England and Wales than ever after Boris Johnson’s 20,000 target was reached.

But in the wake of scandals at the Met such as killer cop Wayne Couzens, Ruth Davidson, of anti-abuse charity Refuge, warned: “We’ve heard that candidates previously not accepted have been recruited.

“The Government must guarantee these officers have been adequately vetted and that abuse allegations have not been overlooked.”

Ms Braverman said just one in ten applicants to the police had been successful.