The Tories have laid into Labour over new figures show that violent crime rose during the third quarter of last year and that there was an increase in firearms offences. See separate article in ‘articles’.
Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, said: "No amount of Government spin and selective reporting of the facts will fool the public – overall recorded crime is up 12 per cent since 1998. Violent crime has spiralled out of control and is still rising. Violent crime, gun crime, violence against the person, and sex offences are all higher than this time last year. Tony Blair’s promise to get a grip on this problem was all talk. The Government have failed to crackdown on guns and drugs which fuel violent crime and at the same time is planning to extend pub opening hours which is likely to encourage further alcohol fuelled violence. Only the Conservatives will deliver real action to cut crime. We will tackle the scourge of drugs and put 40,000 extra police officers on the street. At the next election voters will face a clear choice: Rising crime under Mr Blair who talks tough but acts soft, or a Conservative government who will get a grip on the problem of crime."
Mr Davis added: "Labour’s complacent approach to youth crime is in danger of creating a whole new generation of criminals. Their indifference to the problem is illustrated by the fact this Government does not even bother to record youth crime in its official statistics. The Conservatives would get an urgent grip on youth crime. In particular we would tackle the problem of drugs which fuels much crime by creating 25,000 residential drug rehabilitation places to get all young hard drug addicts of drugs. We would also expand the use of random drug testing in schools."
