By Suella Braverman
Whether you’re going to the shops, walking down your street or just at home, no one should feel unsafe in their community.
That’s why my number one priority is to create safer streets for every resident in every village, town and city across the country.
In 2019 we promised 20,000 extra police officers. And now, we’ve recruited every single one, meaning we now have around 150,00 police officers – the most we’ve ever had.
And in Greater Manchester, this means more police officers on the ground, with local officer numbers boosted by 1,280.
These new recruits will keep the streets safe by clamping down on violence, burglaries, rape and sexual offences as well as anti-social behaviour in places such as Westhoughton, where I know police have restarted a scheme to tackle anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related crime after its success in Bolton town centre.
Not only do we have a record number of officers, but we’ve also been making our police forces more representative of our communities. Across the 43 police forces in England and Wales there are now over 50,000 female officers – more than at any time in history.
But being tough on crime doesn’t stop with recruiting more bobbies on the beat.
We’ve introduced the Beating Crime Plan, to deliver the change that Britain needs, with less crime, fewer victims, and a safer country.
And our Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act supports our new recruits to reduce serious violence, including knife crime and domestic abuse, as well as giving courts the power to make sure the very worst criminals are thrown behind bars for the longest possible time.
Our plans are working, and I’m proud of our record. We have cut crime by 50 per cent since 2010, excluding fraud and computer misuse which we started recording in 2016. Since March 2020, we have reduced theft by 20 per cent, and domestic burglary by 30 per cent. And we’ve taken 90,000 knives off our streets through stop and search, surrender initiatives and other targeted police action since 2019.
Our fantastic Conservative Police and Crime Commissioners have pulled out all the stops to cut crime across the board. Meanwhile, in Labour run PCC areas, residents are almost twice as likely to be victims of robbery more 44 per cent more likely to be victims of knife crime.
This should come as no surprise, Labour’s record on crime is pitiful. They voted against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, they campaigned to stop the deportation of violent foreign offenders, and knife crime is skyrocketing in Labour run London.
Now with thousand more police on the streets in Lancashire and across the country, our vital police forces have the resources they need to keep us all safe. Because only the Conservative Party can be trusted to be tough on crime, and tough on criminals.