“A friend of Surrey police”

: 11pt”>Chief constable Gavin Stephens is a central figure in this whole grim saga. 

Certainly Ireland weaponised the police against his enemies. In 2021, after Lisa Townsend stated that biological sex was important in matters such as crime statistics, police searches and prisons, he posted a photo of an officer sitting in a rainbow police car holding a sign saying “TERFy Townsend not fit for office”. Ireland’s message to anyone who crossed him was: come for me and you deal with the police.

Unsurprisingly, his very public vendetta against Townsend deterred potential whistleblowers (as did chief constable Stephens quickly distancing himself from her views).

So has he resigned yet, this Gavin Stephens? Of course not. He's now Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council.

For Townsend, who attended Ireland’s sentencing, it underlines the imperative of police neutrality. Whatever individual officers’ views, they should not parade them at work, nor should forces appear to favour particular interest groups. She notes wryly that this is an urgent matter for the newish head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council — Gavin Stephens. “I don’t think there should be rainbow cars any more than International Women’s Day or autism awareness cars,” she says. “The police force does one thing no other agency can — it arrests the bad guys.”