Norfolk police commissioner considers cancelling theatre tour

Norfolk's police commissioner is considering scrapping his 127-date theatre show after a backlash from local people, he has told the BBC.

Since announcing his UK-wide true crime tour , Colin Sutton said constituents had emailed him with concerns about his ability to perform his day job.

He was elected to the £79,000-a-year post on a Reform UK ticket in July and announced the gig two months later.

Steffan Aquarone, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk, accused Sutton of acting more like pop star Taylor Swift than a politician.

Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) are elected officials who set the priorities of a police force, appoint a chief constable and hold them to account.

Sutton, who led the investigation to catch serial killer Levi Bellfield , has priced tickets for his "Makings of a Murderer" show at about £40.

The PCC said the theatre tour was not something he needed to mention to voters during the election campaign and he denied letting them down.

Speaking to Chris Goreham on BBC Radio Norfolk, Sutton said the idea for the tour was proposed in 2025, however, he did not commit to the plan and asked promoters to "hold fire" when the PCC by-election happened.

He said: "At the time I was being elected I had said I wasn't going to do it unless I was confident....that it would not be incompatible with doing the job."

Sutton added that since then, the promoters announced a number of tour dates. However he said the tour will now not go ahead in the format that has been published and he is talking with the promoter as to whether or not it should be cancelled entirely.

One of the solutions he proposed was stripping the tour back to venues only local to Norfolk.

He said: "My first priority is this role and to those people who live in Norfolk and I want to come out of my tenure being able to say I made a difference and made things better for them."

He said within the first two months of the role there had been "a lot more work" including long hours, evenings and weekend working that he had not expected .

Sutton is due to appear at a Norfolk police and crime panel on 2 February, before being on stage in Leeds that evening.

"There are lots of people who do meetings like that by [Microsoft] Teams or across the internet now, which might be an option," the ex-detective said.

"But it may well be that it's a moot point now, because I've listened and I think I should make sure the people of Norfolk still have the confidence that I would do the job properly."

Sutton admitted the reaction from constituents on social media and via emails sent to his office had caught him off-guard.

"That's made me think about it again," he conceded.

The role of PCCs in England and Wales is due to be scrapped by the government by the end of Parliament, with their powers to be transferred to newly directly elected mayors.

Aquarone said Sutton had taken the voters of Norfolk for granted by not telling them about the tour.

"Either the job is serious and requires somebody full time paying attention, or it's not and it's OK to go off and do nearly as many tour dates as Taylor Swift," he said.

A spokesperson for Reform said the party was supportive of "celebrity detective" Sutton and pointed out half of his shows would take place at weekends.

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