Police Authority defies British Home Secretary

Humberside Police Authority put itself on a collision course with the British Home Secretary today, defying his order to suspend chief constable David Westwood after a report into police failures in the Soham child murder case.

Instead they urged David Blunkett to reconsider his demand.

Mr Blunkett told the authority to remove Mr Westwood from active duty after he was heavily criticised in an official report into failures in police intelligence in the case of of Soham child killer Ian Huntley.

But following a two-hour meeting at the authority’s headquarters in Hull today, its chairman Councillor Colin Inglis asked the Home Secretary to “reconsider his decision”.