The Prime Minister was in Essex this morning, unveiling his much-briefed antisocial behaviour plan. In recent weeks he and Keir Starmer have been giving a foretaste of what is to come in next year’s general election by trading blows on a range of policy areas. Last week Starmer gave a big speech on law and order; today it was Sunak’s turn to respond. The Tory leader said his plan – with its headline-grabbing plan to ban nitrous oxide – can be summed up in three ‘buckets’: more policing powers, a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and a focus on urgency that will require offenders to repair the damage they have done more quicker. He told the audience how much he loathes the ‘scourge’ of nitrous oxide canisters on the ground in public and promised tougher on-the-spot fines for fly-tipping and graffiti.
It was the kind of politically uncontroversial antisocial behaviour bashing that we have seen since Tony Blair’s day: a fact demonstrated by Labour’s decision to focus on the implementation, not the substance, of Sunak’s plan. The opposition swiftly backed the proposal to ban nitrous oxide yesterday but accused the government of pinching its own proposals. Steve Reed, the Shadow Justice Secretary, criticised ministers for only piloting the plans for ‘hotspot’ police and enforcement areas in 16 parts of the country, rather than making them nationwide. The race between the two parties to be ‘tougher on crime and tougher on the causes of crime’ is a sign of what we can expect in the forthcoming local elections, with Labour reported to be launching their campaign this Thursday.
The problem for the Tories here was demonstrated by the response which the Prime Minister’s comments received from voters. Sunak was speaking at one of his irregular ‘PM Connect’ events – a ‘soap box’ tour of town hall style Q&A sessions, billed as a chance to meet voters and hear their gripes. And Sunak certainly heard them, with the main takeaway of today being how dissatisfied voters are when it comes to the police’s handling of existing crimes. One voter said the non-emergency police number is ‘the most frustrating thing in the world.’ Another told Sunak that laughing gas is ‘the least of your problems’ and that he has reported people for doing harder drugs in public but ‘you don’t know whether it goes into the system or not.’ It points to the wider problem facing the Conservatives: after 13 years in office, why don’t people feel that their streets are safer?
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, is keen to point out that overall crime, excluding fraud and computer misuse, has fallen over the last decade. But while ministers can cite statistical triumphs, it’s that wider sense of dissatisfaction which will be harder to shake off when making the case that public services are better run by the Conservatives.
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