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Police back Boris Johnson over 'no snitching' on neighbours over rule of six

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Policing chiefs have backed Boris Johnson over his “no snitching” appeal as they say reporting your neighbours for breaches of the “rule of six” will fuel “animosity.”

The Prime Minister appeared to put himself at odds yesterday with Home Secretary Priti Patel when he urged people to speak with rule breakers before notifying the authorities.

"I have never much been in favour of sneak culture, myself,” he said, although he accepted it would be reasonable if it was “some huge kind of Animal House party taking place, as I am sure, hot tubs and so forth, and there is a serious threat to public health.”

Ken Marsh, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, representing rank and file officers, said there was a risk of police being overwhelmed by calls when officers had to be focused on serious crime which had returned to pre-covid levels.

“Say you get called by a householder to say there are 12 people in her neighbour’s garden, what is our power of entry. There isn’t one.

“If you then go upstairs in her house to have a look to check if the claims are correct, the people have most likely gone back indoors. All it is doing is creating animosity between police and the public.”

Mr Marsh also criticised the ambiguity of the official guidance on the rule of six, which had only been issued to police at 11.45pm the night before it was due to come into force. He said people could exploit the exemptions by claiming they were entitled to them leaving police powerless to take any action.