Perran Moon MP, a key backbench supporter of the Prime Minister, has declined to endorse calls for policing in the UK to be “colour-blind”.

On the Henry Nowak case, he told The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “I looked at the statistics at the data, and the data says that by a margin of four to one, black men are more likely to be stopped and searched than white. They’re twice as likely to be arrested, and their sentences are 10 months longer.

“Generally, are there particular issues that we see cropping up? Yes, and this is clearly one of them. Now, there is an independent police investigation underway, and I’m just going to be really careful with what I say, because I don’t want in any way to prejudice that investigation. But what I will say is, like everybody else, I found that footage really deeply disturbing.”

Asked if the solution was to ensure that policing was “colour-blind”, he said: “This is a really delicate moment. It is an opportunity for us to take a step back, take a deep breath, and look calmly at the whole of the situation. Here, I don’t want to be drawn into individual circumstances.

“Clearly, there are issues that do crop up, but the statistics, if you look at the data and the statistics, as I’ve just explained, there are incidences where certain groups are at higher risk, but then against that, we can’t have a kind of overreaction the other way, and it’s just about [getting] the delicate balance right.”

In a swipe at Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham, he said ministers needed to have an understanding of macroeconomics: “I can’t speak for Andy Burnham. What I do know is that in the current economic climate, the situation we’re in, particularly with the debt that we have…it is absolutely essential that fiscal prudence leads so much of policy development, and so it’s absolutely vital that we have people in government who really understand the implications of policy announcements and policy development.

“Because whether we like it or not, we are in a situation where our debt does lead our policy, we cannot borrow our way out of the economic situation that we are in. So it’s absolutely vital that atop a government we have people that understand macroeconomics.”

Pressed on Burnham’s comments in a recent interview about not wanting to be “in hock” to the markets, he said: “That’s for Andy Burnham to answer. What I do know is that we have interest rates falling, we have wage growth up, we have inflation falling prior to the war in Iran.

“Given the fiscal situation we’re in, my faith is very much in Rachel Reeves.”