Howard: Let shop staff use force on thieves

Tory leader Michael Howard sparked a fresh debate today over how property-owners can defend themselves against criminals. He threw his weight behind demands to extend the rights of householders to fight back against burglars. And in a new proposal, the Tories called for shopkeepers to be allowed to use weapons against shoplifters who turn violent.

The moves follow heightened public concern about violent intruders after the death last week of City financier John Monckton, 49, in an attempted robbery at his £3 million house in Chelsea.

One week on from the stabbing, police issued leaflets in the area around his Upper Cheyne Row home appealing for witnesses who may have seen two suspects fleeing last Monday night.

Mr Howard said the prosecution of householders who attack burglars was "typical of the topsy-turvy, politically-correct world in which we live". Appealing to Tony Blair to support him, he said: "If criminals break into people's houses and attack them, homeowners must be able to defend themselves."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens has called for a legal presumption that people who use force to defend their homes are acting within the law. The Government is resisting any change, pointing out that property owners are already entitled to use "reasonable force" against intruders.

Mr Howard's intervention signalled that the Tories intend to make self-defence an election issue in the belief it will prove a vote-winner.

The Tory plan would go further than current law by allowing any degree of force so long as it is not "grossly disproportionate". The party claims that would bring criminal law into line with civil law, under which wounded burglars can only sue if they are the victims of "grossly disproportionate" violence.

Mr Howard said: "Crime in Britain is out of control. Families dread waking up to the noise of an intruder in their home. There is a sense of outrage that so-called human rights have tipped the balance of justice in favour of the criminal."

Tory proposals on shoplifters could affect thousands of cases where petty thieves turn violent. Currently, cornershop owners who keep improvised weapons at the counter face severe restrictions on their use. Tory home affairs spokesman Dominic Grieve said: "Shopkeepers are entitled to keep something under the counter for their protection. I'm sure a lot of shopkeepers do.

This affects what he could do with it. "Somebody in a shop becomes a trespasser from the moment he starts to shoplift, and you are entitled to use force to deal with him. If you confront him as he runs out and say, 'You are under arrest,' and he starts to lash out, then you would be entitled to use force, so long as it's not grossly disproportionate."

He said it would be "grossly disproportionate" to bludgeon to death a 12-yearold boy who had crept into a stranger's house to steal apples.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer aims to amend the 1967 Criminal Law Act with the backing of his party's leadership. He is at the top of the private members' ballot, an annual lottery of MPs for the chance to propose laws, meaning his plans have a good chance of reaching the statute book unless Labour blocks them.

In three US states, including Oklahoma, householders can use lethal force against intruders. Mr Grieve dismissed that approach as "fairly draconian".

The Tories have made clear their proposed law would not have cleared Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer convicted of killing a burglar in 1999. The intruder, Fred Barras, 16, was running away when Martin blasted him with a shotgun.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has already announced a review of England's murder laws which will examine the circumstances in which a defendant can claim to have acted in self-defence.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, insisted yesterday people already have the right to defend themselves. He said: "People should know you can use force to defend yourself in your home and outside your home. What we need to do is make people aware that is the law."