'Is it her job to give an opinion?' Nigel Farage TEARS INTO Met Police chief over Boris
NIGEL FARAGE attacked the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service for her intervention on Boris Johnson after the former Foreign Secretary's controversial remarks about women who wear full-face veils.
Met Police Chief accused of being 'overtly political' by Farage
Boris Johnson has faced calls to apologise this week after he suggested women who wear full-face veils look like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”.
Nigel Farage has claimed Mr Johnson should not have to apologise for his remarks, and has criticised Cressida Dick for speaking about the former Foreign Secretary.
Commissioner Dick said that while the comments may have been found offensive, officers had decided that Mr Johnson did not commit an offence with his remarks.
Speaking on LBC he Nigel Farage said: “Is it her job to give an opinion?
“Doesn't she know herself as the Metropolitan Police Commissioner what constitutes a hate crime and what does not?
“And why did she have to refer to her colleagues on this issue given that no complaints have been received?
“I have to say I see her intervention today, her answers today, I think they are overtly political.”
Speaking to the BBC, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said: “I know that many people have found this offensive.
“I also know that many other people believe strongly that in the whole of the article, what Mr Johnson appears to have been attempting to do was to say that there shouldn't be a ban and that he was engaging in a legitimate debate.”
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Is it her job to give an opinion?
Ms Dick also told the BBC Asian Network: "Some people have clearly found it offensive.
"I spoke last night to my very experienced officers who deal with hate crime and, although we have not yet received any allegation of such a crime, I can tell you that my preliminary view having spoken to them is that what Mr Johnson said would not reach the bar for a criminal offence. He did not commit a criminal offence."
Mr Johnson has been under pressure since writing a piece for the Daily Telegraph in which he suggested women who wear face veils look like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”.
Prime Minister Theresa May has urged the former Foreign Secretary to issue an apology but he has so far refused to do so.
Mohammed Amin, chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum, described the comments as “very unfortunate” and claimed they could boost the far-right.
Leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed the Prime Minister was wrong to tell him to apologise.
He told LBC on Wednesday: “No, she’s clearly wrong to have asked him to apologise. It’s not the job of the Prime Minister to tell backbenchers what to do. We are not bound by collective responsibility or that type of discipline and it is the wrong approach to party discipline.
“The Prime Minister is of course entitled to expect ministers to stick to a government line but that does not apply to backbench MPs.”
A source close to Mr Johnson said it was “ridiculous” that his views should be under attack.
The former Foreign Secretary is facing a possible investigation into breaches of the Conservative Party code of conduct for his comments.