Tuesday briefing: The Met police is taking a step back from mental health crisis care – but who steps in?
In today's newsletter: From September the force will stop attending to non-urgent mental health care calls - but should they? And who will step in now?
Good morning. It's an intuitive proposition: the police's primary duty is to protect the public and stop crime, and it must discard any responsibilities that interfere with that goal. But an exclusive story by Vikram Dodd that led the Guardian yesterday suggests how much more complicated the picture is in reality.
Vikram revealed that Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley will soon order officers not to attend the thousands of mental health incidents they get called to in London each year, unless there is an immediate threat to life. Rowley says that the force simply does not have the resources or the training to deal with the scale of the task. Now health leaders are warning that thousands of people will simply be left without support if the Met walks away.
Housing | Labour is planning to give local officials in England sweeping new powers to buy land cheaply and develop on it, as part of the party's new pro-building" agenda. Party sources say that if elected next year, they will pass a law to allow local development authorities the ability to buy up land at a fraction of its potential cost under compulsory purchase orders.
Cost of living | Food inflation in the UK fell in May, lifting hopes that the rapid increase in grocery prices may have reached its peak after keeping the broader consumer prices index painfully high so far this year. After more than a year of sharp increases, the rate of annual food inflation eased from 15.7% to 15.4%.
Ukraine | At least one person has died in Kyiv and three were injured during the third Russian attack in 24 hours. Meanwhile, the mayor of Moscow said that several buildings there had been hit by drones, but had caused only minor damage and no serious injuries.
Uganda | Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bill into law. The legislation, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts, drew widespread condemnation, with Joe Biden saying the US was considering sanctions against Ugandan officials.
Covid inquiry | The Cabinet Office could take unprecedented action to prevent Boris Johnson's unredacted diaries and WhatsApp messages being handed to the official Covid inquiry, the Guardian had been told. Officials, who are due to respond to a request for the materials by 4pm today, could launch a legal challenge to resist the inquiry's demands for the full cache of messages.
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