Return to 50:50 police recruitment a mistake

Any return to 50:50 recruitment to the police force in Northern Ireland would be a “mistake”, DUP leader Gavin Robinson has said.

In his weekly email to party members, Mr Robinson also said there had been an “absence of sustained and wholehearted leadership” from republicans to challenge barriers to Catholics joining the PSNI.

New PSNI recruitment figures this week showed that the percentage of new Catholic applicants to join the force was at its lowest in more than a decade.

Police said more than 4,000 people had applied for their latest student officer recruitment campaign, with 65.6% from a Protestant background, 26.7% from a Catholic background and 7.7%…