Crime prevention minister ‘has purse stolen’ at annual policing conference

Dame Diana Johnson warned of ‘epidemic of theft’ in remarks to police chiefs as her belongings were allegedly stolen

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said the police have the resources they need (PA)

The government’s crime prevention minister has allegedly had her purse stolen at an annual conference for senior police chiefs.

Dame Diana Johnson gave a speech on Tuesday warning of an “epidemic of antisocial behaviour, theft and shoplifting” as part of the annual Police Superintendents' Association conference, which was held at the Chesford Grange hotel, near Kenilworth.

Serving to underscore her warning, it emerged on Thursday that Dame Diana’s purse had allegedly been stolen around the time of her speech at the four-star hotel.

A Warwickshire Police spokesperson told The Independent: “We’re investigating a report of the theft of a purse at a hotel on the B4115 in Kenilworth. The theft occurred some time between 11.00-13.15 on Tuesday. Enquiries are ongoing.

“A 56-year-old man from Coventry has been arrested on suspicion of burglary and has since been released on bail while enquiries continue.”

Dame Diana was billed to speak at the conference between 12:45pm and 1:45pm, during which time she admitted that the Home Office does not yet know where 13,000 local police officers promised in Labour’s manifesto will come from.

Before they were elected, the party pledged to “take back our streets” by deploying 13,000 more neighbourhood police, PCSOs and special constables to patrol communities.

But Dame Diana told those gathered at the event that she could not give “specifics” over whether the officers will be new recruits or existing staff.

The policing minister was speaking at the event at the Chesford Grange hotel on Tuesday (Google Maps)

While the Office for National Statistics’ Crime Survey for England and Wales suggests that theft has fallen consistently to five times lower than a peak of more than 11 million incidents in 1995, police data suggests that reports of shoplifting and theft from the person increased significantly over the past year.

There were 443,995 shoplifting offences recorded by the police in the 12 months to March, representing a 30 per cent increase upon the previous year after hitting a 20-year high, while theft from the person offences increased by 17 per cent, rising to 131,453 recorded crimes.

The Independent has approached the Home Office for comment.