LISA NANDY MP: restoring the rule of law on our streets

​After 13 years of Conservative Government, over 90 per cent of crimes are going unsolved - meaning that criminals are half as likely to be caught now than under the last Labour Government. Today we have 10,000 fewer neighbourhood police on our streets. Half the country say they never see a bobby on the beat. Recorded serious violence is also up by 60 per cent since 2015, devastating lives and communities.

Crime figures from 2022 in Wigan showed large increases in violent crime, sexual offences and stalking and harassment compared to a year before.

The King’s Speech earlier this month, outlining the Government’s priorities for the year ahead, included little to suggest they have any real plans to turn the current situation around.

The speech did indicate the Government wants stronger sentencing for rape and child sexual abuse and tougher powers to retrieve stolen items.

These aims are obviously welcome but mean little when only two per cent of rapists receive a court summons, two-thirds of child abuse cases are closed due to difficulties with evidence and when arrests for theft are down 40 per cent on just a few years ago. The latest records show that knife crime, gun crime and robbery have all increased, with over 50,000 knife crimes this past year, and a 70 per cent rise in recorded knife crime since 2015 - yet there was nothing to address this in this King’s Speech.

There was also nothing at all about town centre crime. Under the Tories, shoplifting has reached record levels with a 25 per cent surge over the past year alone. Assaults on shop workers tripled during the pandemic and have not reduced. But the Tories’ shoplifting charter means offences under £200 are rarely enforced and town centre police patrols have been cut.

Labour will turn things around. We will reverse the collapse in the proportion of crimes charged, we’ll rebuild public confidence in policing and the justice system and we’ll restore the rule of law on Britain’s streets.

We’ll revive neighbourhood policing by putting 13,000 more officers and PCSOs on our streets and guaranteeing town centre patrols. We would also give every community a named officer that they can get in touch with.

We’ll reverse the Tories’ decision to downgrade the response to shoplifting worth under £200, making it easier to tackle repeat offenders and create a new specific offence of assault against retail workers because everyone has the right to feel safe at work.

Labour will target those who blight our towns with new powers to ban repeat anti-social behaviour offenders from town centres and stamp out public drinking and drug use.

Every local area will also get a dedicated lead focused specifically on tackling anti-social behaviour.

And we will reverse the collapse in the proportion of crimes solved by fast-tracking the recruitment of detectives to plug the 7,000 shortage and removing burdensome rules to speed up charging decisions and save police time. People are crying out for a government who care about tackling crime, bringing security to our streets and restoring confidence in the police and a Labour Government would provide that.