Chris Clarkson, Member of Parliament for Heywood and Middleton, has backed a bill which would create a specific criminal offence of desecrating a war memorial as it passed its first legislative hurdle on Tuesday in the House of Commons.
Currently, only offences of criminal damage which exceed £5,000 can be dealt with at a Crown Court and therefore, at present, most of these cases are deal with at a Magistrates’ Court, with a maximum sentence of six months.
The Bill, which was introduced by the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, Jonathan Gullis would remove the current £5,000 threshold for damage to war memorials and establish a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
Two weeks ago, Mr Clarkson - along with numerous Conservative MPs - wrote to the Home Secretary to ask her to support these proposals.
The Heywood and Middleton MP stated that: “I do not believe that the current sentencing guidelines act as a sufficient enough deterrent to those who want to commit the despicable and disgusting act of desecrating a war memorial and I look forward to continuing to support these measures.”