Smacking laws need to be reviewed, claims MP

Legislation surrounding the smacking of children needs to be relaxed so working-class parents can instil discipline without fearing prosecution, according to a senior Labour politician.

MP for Tottenham David Lammy claimed Labour’s 2004 decision to tighten up the smacking law was partly to blame for last summer’s riots in his north London constituency.

The former education minister said: “Many of my constituents came up to me saying: ‘You guys stopped us being able to smack our children’.

“I have to say when this was first raised with me I was pretty disparaging. But I started to listen. These parents are scared to smack their children and paranoid that social workers will take their children away.”

Mr Lammy, who admitted to smacking his three and five-year-old sons, said working-class parents should be able to physically discipline their children to prevent them from joining gangs and getting involved in knife crime.

The Children Act of 2004 says parents are allowed to smack their offspring without causing the “reddening of the skin”.