CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

DSIT – POLICING PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS IN PUBS - 03 September 2025

DSIT – POLICING PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS IN PUBS - 03 September 2025

Sir Julian Lewis: The Minister is an entirely charming chap and a great entertainer – I worry that his Equity card might be getting out of date. He praises the changes that have been made to the employment conditions of bar staff, for example, but does he really think that it is a good idea to have them policing the comments of people who use public houses, when it takes as many as five members of the constabulary to arrest a comedian over inappropriate tweets?

[The Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism (Chris Bryant): The right hon. Gentleman makes a perfectly legitimate point. No, of course I do not want that. I want the police officers in my constituency to be policing the streets, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said this morning, not policing tweets or private conversations between individuals – [Interruption.] I have made my point. The police in my constituency, where, incidentally, we lost large numbers of police officers during the time that the Conservative Government were in office, are hard pressed enough to deal with the problems they have without trying to take on ludicrous and preposterous elements as well. ...]