London Evening Standard/London

Theresa May yesterday dug her heels in over Boris Johnson’s plan for water cannon on the streets of London.
In an exclusive interview with the Evening Standard, the home secretary rebuffed the mayor’s calls for a quick decision on licensing the three anti-riot devices which he bought for £218,000 last June.  “This is not a decision to be taken lightly because this could change the face of British policing,” she said.
May said the “official decision” had not been taken, despite City Hall’s belief she is against the second-hand machines purchased from Germany.
May said it had been merely delayed because medical and scientific evidence “came in late” and it would be up to whoever is home secretary after the election to make a ruling.  In a wide-ranging interview during a campaign trail stopover, May turned up the heat on the decision by director of public prosecutions Alison Saunders not to prosecute Lord Janner over sex abuse allegations. She also:
l Challenged the call by Labour rival Yvette Cooper to make more use of counter-terror powers to relocate suspects out of London.
l Threatened new laws to curb the use of police stop-and-search powers if forces fail to stop targeting black people unfairly.
l Failed to rule herself out of a future Tory leadership contest — and revealed how she is coping with her diabetes on the gruelling campaign trail.
On the Janner case, May said: “My particular concern was about the impact it could have on survivors and victims and whether it would stop people from coming forward because they felt there was no point.”
Asked if she had full confidence in Saunders, who decided Lord Janner was unfit to be tried because he had dementia, she merely said: “She looked at the evidence and it is right for her to take the decision.”
May welcomed the announcement by Justice Goddard, head of a wide-ranging sex abuse inquiry, that she would fully investigate the claims by a reported 25 witnesses.
“I hope that will give survivors and victims confidence the independent inquiry will go wherever the evidence takes it without fear or favour,” said the home secretary.
She said SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is a security risk to Londoners because her party did not support May’s proposals for laws to let the police, with court approval, check internet usage to fight terrorism or crimes.
The home secretary argued that such laws could help to protect girls from being “groomed” to go out to Syria and become brides to Islamic State fighters. Some London teenagers are believed to have been lured through the internet and May compared their controllers with sexual groomers.
“I think there is a parallel,” she said. “It is grooming with a different intent but I’m sure that it uses the same sort of techniques across the internet. The more information you have about what happened, the better able you are to identify how it happened.
“The best intelligence and information are still from families, friends and people who perhaps see a change of behaviour and feel concerned.” Last week May raised eyebrows by admitting that just one terror suspect is subject to a Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPim) order.
Does the number really reflect London’s security situation? “People assume this is the one measure that is used in every circumstance,” she said. “It is not.”
Shadow home secretary Cooper told the Standard last week she would order a review to increase the number subjected to TPims and relocated outside the capital. May retorted that it was “not for a politician to say” but for the security services to apply before such hefty powers are deployed.
May said she was happy with the Metropolitan Police response to her call for stop-and-search powers to be used more sparingly. However, some forces were still stopping too many innocent black youths.
“The Met has grasped this and taken action,” she said. “That’s good to see. Elsewhere we are seeing varying take-up. We are clear that if that doesn’t work, if it doesn’t improve the arrest ratio, then we will legislate.”
After five weeks of campaigning May looks full of energy, despite being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2013. Sitting in a Caffe Nero opposite the Home Office after a morning of ministerial business, she ordered a cappuccino without chocolate sprinkles. “You learn to cope,” she said of her new daily routine of four insulin injections.
“The key thing is to make sure I stop for lunch. I carry an insulin pen and needles with me. At each main meal I inject and then I inject a different kind of insulin at night.”