HOMEOWNERS who ?bash a burglar? ? even if they shoot or stab one in the heat of the moment ? will escape prosecution, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling will announce today.
They will be allowed to use ?disproportionate? force while fearing for their safety. However, if householders use ?grossly disproportionate? force, they face being hauled before court.
Mr Grayling will also tell the Tory conference in Birmingham he is binning Ken Clarke?s soft-touch community sentences. Current laws only allow people to use ?reasonable force? against intruders.
In his speech to the Conservative conference, Mr Grayling will say: ?Being confronted by an intruder in your home is terrifying. The public should be in no doubt the law is on their side.
Speech ... Justice Secretary Chris Grayling
?That is why I am strengthening the current law. Householders who act instinctively and honestly in self-defence are victims of crime and should be treated that way. We need to dispel doubts in this area once and for all.?
?Grossly disproportionate? force ? carrying out a sustained attack over a long period ? could result in prosecution.
The change follows outrage last month when Andy Ferrie, 35, and wife Tracey, 43, were arrested for injuring two burglars, shot with a legally-owned gun after a break-in at the couple?s remote home in Leicestershire.
Mr Grayling will also pledge that all community sentences must in future contain real punishments, such as a fine or curfew.
And he will condemn soft-touch penalties which have seen thugs sent to work in charity shops. Mr Grayling will say: ?I think every community sentence should contain a proper punishment. I want to restore the public?s faith in them. We inherited a weak, ?soft-option? programme from Labour.
?Yes, we should be looking to rehabilitate. But if someone has committed an offence, they also need to receive a proper punishment for it.?
Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to unveil plans to let victims of anti-social behaviour choose a ?payback? punishment for the offenders. This could be compensation or repairing damage.
Hubby cleared after shooting at thieves
Not charged ... Tracey and Andy Ferrie
TRACEY and Andy Ferrie were quizzed for 66 hours after opening fire on four thieves.
Andy used a legally-owned shotgun to warn them away from their cottage near Melton Mowbray, Leics.
The couple were not charged. Two shot burglars were jailed.
- BUILDER Omari Roberts, 25, avoided jail in 2010 after fatally stabbing a teen raider.
An accomplice dropped his claim that Omari ran off before returning to kill the lad in Nottingham.
- MUNIR Hussain, 56, was jailed for 30 months in 2009 after battering a burglar in High Wycombe, Bucks.
He was out a month later after a judge ruled he?d acted under ?extreme provocation?.
Debt crisis worse than we thought says Chancellor, but workers and bosses can unite to boost economy
By TOM NEWTON DUNN, Political Editor
GEORGE Osborne yesterday unveiled a radical new ?shares for rights? plan to open up the jobs market ? while admitting the UK?s finances are worse than he feared.
Addressing the Tory faithful at the Party?s conference in Birmingham, the Chancellor signalled there would have to be yet MORE spending cuts and tax rises before the end of the year.
But in a fresh bid to get growth back into Britain?s shrinking economy, he also revealed a new voluntary deal where workers would ditch a raft of employment law in exchange for a stake in the firm they work for.
Under the plan, employees would give up the right to claim unfair dismissal, redundancy pay-offs and flexible working hours.
In exchange, small business bosses will give them up to ?50,000 of shares ? free of any capital gains tax.
?Speaking for workers? ... Mr Osborne yesterday
Rex
The move ? which will be fast-tracked through Parliament ? will free bosses of crippling red tape and allow them to take on more people.
Mr Osborne said: ?Get shares and become owners of the company you work for. Owners, workers and the taxman, all in it together.?
And in a cheeky dig at Labour for pinching Tory slogans at their conference last week, he used Karl Marx?s famous rallying cry for Communism to sum it up: ?Workers of the world unite.?
Anchoring the Tories firmly on the side of ?strivers? rather than scroungers, Mr Osborne added: ?We speak for the worker and all those who want to get on ? this is the mission of the modern Conservative Party?.
Business welcomed his plan, with the Institute of Directors saying it ?could make a real difference to jobs and share-holding?.
But last night critics dubbed it a risky gamble that could make workers rich ? but also see them fired on the spot. John Cridland, the CBI?s director-general, said it was a ?niche? idea and ?not relevant to all businesses?.
Hours before his podium speech, Mr Osborne was hit by yet more grim economic news.
Experts predicted spiralling borrowing because of the world downturn meant his deficit reduction plan has been blown off course for the second year in a row.
Mr Osborne will miss his key target of being able to reduce the debt mountain by 2015, and austerity may now have to last a year longer than expected ? to 2018.
In his speech, the Chancellor dropped a strong hint he would have to outline extra austerity measures in his bi-annual report to Parliament on December 6.
Mr Osborne revealed: ?We face more hard choices this Autumn.
CHANCELLOR tells Tory party faithful that "everyone in our society has had to make a contribution"
?The truth is that the damage done by the debts and the banking crisis was worse than we feared. The economy is healing. That healing is taking longer than we hoped, because the damage was greater than we feared.?
Striking a note of contrition for the ?omnishambles? blunders of the previous six months, the Chancellor also begged followers to trust him again, asking for their ?support and resolve?.
Despite the darkening storm clouds ahead, the 41-year-old Chancellor said he will stick to his deficit cutting plan, no matter how long the pain has to last.
Mr Osborne went on: ?Let the message from this conference be clear: We will finish the job we have started.?
The Chancellor also announced plans for a more generous tax regime to encourage research and development of shale gas in the hope of generating jobs and cheap energy from reserves identified in Lancashire and elsewhere in the UK.
In a bid to balance up an eye-watering fresh round of benefits cuts Mr Osborne also promised to find a way to hike tax rates for Britain?s richest. But the Lib Dems last night vowed to block any attempt to slash a further ?10billion from the benefits bill.
The Chancellor said he and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith had struck a deal to find the massive savings to help cut the deficit.
Workless families who have lots of children could see their payouts cut under the moves. And young people who have never had a job will also lose their housing benefits. But Nick Clegg yesterday said ?nothing in detail? had been agreed on.
And a source close to the Deputy PM went even further by insisting the Party would veto the Tory plans.
Veto ... Lib Dem?s Clegg
The source said: ?We certainly have not signed up to ?10billion and we don?t agree with the size of that figure.
?It would be madness to rule out welfare cuts in their entirety as it makes up one-third of Government spending.
?But if you ask whether we think it should be ?10billion then the answer is ?no?.?
Meanwhile, Mr Osborne also admitted that increasing benefits by 5.2 per cent this year while many workers are facing wage freezes or small rises had been a mistake. He said: ?It?s not just about the money ? it comes back to fairness and enterprise.
?For how can we justify the incomes of those out of work rising faster than the incomes of those in work??
A report yesterday by the Centre for Policy Studies showed more than half of British households now receive more in State benefits than they pay in taxes.
But there was some good news yesterday, when one of the most influential think tanks in the world claimed the UK?s economy is picking up.
The OECD said growth was back in the UK ? while almost every other major economy was slowing. In a monthly report, the Paris-based organisation said the US was now suffering from ?moderating growth?. And the economies of Germany, France and Italy were ?weakening?.
The survey came as the World Bank separately slashed its predicted growth forecast for East Asia, including China, to an 11-year low.
OECD spokesman Gyorgy Gyomai said: ?There are not tentative signs, but stable signs of a pick up in the UK.
?There has been quite a steady improvement in consumer confidence. Interest rates are low which is a good indicator for the future. It shows the UK is likely to get back to its trend rate of growth. We see the opposite for the Eurozone.?
t.newtondunn@the-sun.co.uk
PandeBoJonium: Rock star reception for 'PM rival' Boris
By GRAEME WILSON, Deputy Political Editor
BORIS Johnson got a rock star welcome yesterday before putting on a show of loyalty to David Cameron.
Amid amazing scenes, cheering crowds chanted ?Boris, Boris? as his train arrived in Birmingham.
The London mayor then had to battle through a scrum of supporters and photographers to reach his taxi.
Mobbed ... Johnson fights through crowds at station
Later more than a thousand activists gave him a raucous standing ovation at a fringe meeting.
Boris responded by insisting he was fully behind the Prime Minister. Just 24 hours after saying it was ?unverifiable? whether Mr Cameron is a better PM than he would be, he declared: ?No one should doubt my admiration for David Cameron.?
But he went off message by declaring his support for grammar schools and warning ministers not to build a third runway at Heathrow.
Backing ... Boris
The Picture Library Ltd
Tory big beast Ken Clarke responded by telling him to stop scheming and focus on his job. The Minister without Portfolio added: ?If he really wants to be Prime Minister ? for serious reasons not just because he?ll get his picture in the paper more often ? he has to settle down and demonstrate he can seriously deliver on some complicated subjects.?
In a keynote speech today ? Mr Cameron?s 46th birthday ? Boris will vow to keep London as the motor of the British economy. And he is expected to back Chancellor George Osborne?s economic strategy to beat the recession.
Sun ... cartoon
g.wilson@the-sun.co.uk
myView
By TREVOR KAVANAGH, Associate Editor
THE crowd made it clear BoJo could be leader any time he wanted.
But the question is: Has he peaked too soon?
Ken Clarke spoke of favourites ?going out of fashion?. Aware of the risk, Boris went out of his way to praise his boss.
But he will have to hit the loyalty button a lot more before the PM starts to believe him.
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