Government rejects petition calling for a register of bigots

By Will Brook

The Government has rejected a petition signed by thousands calling for a register of bigots who repeatedly break the law.

The petition, introduced by a new political party called Taking the Initiative Party (TTIP), received 10,979 signatures from supporters of its call for the government to create an official racial and homophobic offenders’ register.

This would allow organisations to find out if potential employees have a history of race-related offences before they were recruited.

The Government rejected the petition on January 26 with the statement: “The Government has no plans to introduce such a register.

“The existing criminal records disclosure scheme allows employers to access appropriate criminal record information about prospective employees.”

Charles Gordon, a founding member of TTIP, said: “We are very disappointed with the recent response from the government in relation to the register.

“We believe that the register will go some way in order to deter hate crimes based on race, orientation or gender identity. We feel strongly that prejudice isn’t innate- it’s taught.

“The register will help to address the systemic prejudices that our society currently holds, and the government’s dismissive response is yet another example of their inability to deal with the very real problems that members of the community suffer daily.

“It is still our intention to continue forming the register for implementation, as these key societal issues will only be addressed by creating accountability.”

TTIP was established by a group of British business people set on empowering the working class community through representation.

The party put up billboards in December 2020 highlighting that the MP for Croydon South, Chris Philip, voted against free school meals.

The party’s outline for the new offenders’ register proposed a three tier system, with offenders on tier one (first time offenders) remaining on the register for three years, with the length of time increasing at each level, up to 10 years in tier three.

The party suggested that an Independent Assessment Committee would judge whether accusations were racist or homophobic based on the Race Relations Act and S146 Criminal Justice Act legislations.