Labour has criticised Conservative over a likening of the UK to the US city crime drama The Wire.
In a speech on crime and broken communities on August 25, Chris Grayling, Tory Shadow Home Secretary spoke of what he called a “decade of neglect” under Labour – a decade in which “violence in our society has become a norm and not an exception”.
“Since Labour came to power, the level of violent crime in Britain has risen dramatically, by 70 per cent. Gun crime is up by more than half and there are more than 100 serious knife crimes each day. Under Labour, fatal stabbings reached the highest level on record.”
These figures, he said, showed that the drug and crime culture of the award winning US series ‘The Wire’ is increasingly becoming a feature of British cities as well: “The culture of violence that was a feature of US cities a generation ago is now a feature of British cities. The Wire used to be just a work of fiction for British viewers. But under this Government, in many parts of British cities, The Wire has become a part of real life in this country too”.
Responding to the Tory claims, Alan Johnson MP, Labour’s Home Secretary said: “Chris Grayling should be praising the police for continued reduction in gun-related offences, rather than talking Britain down. <br><br>"The connection between The Wire and Chris Grayling’s grasp on the problems of modern Britain is that they’re both fictional. <br><br>“The serious problems being tackled in our communities will not be diminished by his embarrassing habit of making glib references to television programmes that he thinks will make him sound ‘cool’.”
