With a second Metropolitan Police officer now accused of rape following the Wayne Couzens case, Boris spoke in a pooled clip this morning to insist the public should continue to trust the police – though admitted a cultural change is necessary:

“What we can certainly conclude from the Wayne Couzens case […] is that there is a massive job of work to do to give women the confidence that they need. And I want to be clear: I believe that people should be confident in the police […] it is vital that the public trust the police. But what we need to do is do some things to make the streets safer, and we’re investing massively in CCTV and street lighting and those sorts of things. But also make sure that we change the culture of policing […] I want to see a much shorter time between a reporting of a crime, an arrest, between an arrest and prosecution, between prosecution and a conviction…we’ve also got to recruit many more female police officers. It’s happening in the Met […] it should happen around the country.”

Asked why the Policing Bill going through the Lords isn’t explicit in defining sexual or domestic violence as “serious”, Boris simply said “it’s an ongoing case […] I can’t comment on the detail of that”…