Labour’s crime and justice policies are coming under fire (Image: Getty)
Labour’s approach to knife crime is “totemic” of its wider weaknesses on law and order, a scathing report has concluded.
Policy Exchange warned that Sir ’s party ignores enforcement in favour of “their comfort zone of prevention and rehabilitation”.
The report’s authors, David Spencer and Alexander Tait, warned ministers that the public are increasingly demanding a “tougher approach to crime”, with ’s Reform UK among those set to fill the void.
The researchers say ordinary people want police chiefs and ministers to prioritise murder, rape, violent crime and sexual assault over non-crime hate incidents and community outreach.
Reform UK and Nigel Farage could benefit from a weakness in Labour’s crime policies (Image: Getty)
Mr Spencer and Mr Tait pointed to the party’s views on knife crime as an example of how the public want far more than is currently being done by the Government.
The pair wrote: “In their manifesto for the General Election, Labour rightly described knife crime as a ‘national crisis’ with an aim to ‘halve knife crime in a decade’.
“Labour outline an array of measures they will take to support prevention and rehabilitation – these include: the creation of a new Young Futures Programme with a ‘network of hubs reaching every community’, local prevention partnerships to ‘identify young people who could be drawn into violence’, and pathways to support young people out of violence by placing ‘youth workers and mentors in A&E units and Pupil Referral Units’.
“Each of these activities may well have value, but there is almost nothing in the Labour manifesto on the enforcement activities also necessary to combat knife crime – indeed they state that only the ‘most serious cases’ of knife possession will lead to custody.
“Yet it is difficult to conceive a case of knife possession or knife-enabled offences which would not be serious.
“Stop and search is not mentioned by Labour in their manifesto at all.
“The public want and expect the Government to vigorously support police enforcement against those who commit crime.
“Anything less will leave the Government open to the accusation that they are ‘soft on crime, soft on the causes of crime’.”
Shocking figures revealed that two in five criminals caught carrying a knife did not get an immediate prison sentence last year.
Policy Exchange said voters across every demographic group want the police to take a tougher approach to crime.
And Labour’s crime and disorder policies in government are out of step with their 2024 voters, researchers said.
Labour MP Jonathan Hinder, who is also a former police inspector, said: “As this timely report sets out, voters across the political spectrum, and across ethnicities, want much bolder action on crime.
“The Left has often been far too squeamish about policing, despite crime’s disproportionate effect on the working-class communities we seek to represent.
“The new Labour Government now has the opportunity to face down the vocal anti-police activists, back our officers to take back the streets, and reconnect with our working-class base in the process.”
Policy Exchange said ’s Reform UK could appeal to millions of voters frustrated by a weak approach to law and order.
It said the party’s “narrative on policing and justice has been consistent and unambiguously ‘tough’ on crime”.
Reform has pledged to hire 40,000 police officers, commence “zero-tolerance policing” and “increase stop and search substantially”.
Mr Spencer, head of crime and justice at Policy Exchange and a former Detective Chief Inspector in the Metropolitan Police, said: “Our polling reveals that across every demographic group and political party, the public are unequivocal in wanting the police to take a tougher approach to crime and criminals.
“Rather than listening to a small group of ultra-progressive activists and their legal supporters, the Labour Government needs to deliver what the law-abiding majority want on crime and policing.
“If they don’t, Labour should fully expect Reform to take electoral advantage of their failings – they have been warned.”
Researchers said the Conservative Party’s 2019 voters with the toughest views on crime abandoned the party in 2024.
Mr Spencer and Mr Tait added: “If the feeling that the state – through the police and criminal justice system – is not adequately protecting the public from crime continues to grow, then this issue will become increasingly salient in our politics.
“Its effect will be that political parties that fail to meet the public’s demands for a less permissive approach to crime and disorder are electorally punished.
“If Labour are to meet the expectations of the public on crime and policing, it is this central message that must be reflected in the Government’s policies and narrative.
“If Labour do not, as we show in this paper, they can expect that Reform UK will be well positioned to take advantage.”